Sermon

Take the Field - Kingdom Labor

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. Turn over to Matthew chapter 21, starting in verse 28.

    Matthew 21 chapter mention

  2. Matthew chapter 21, we'll start in verse 28.

    Matthew 21 chapter mention

  3. And today I would call this message Take the Field.

  4. Now you know, you understand in a, in a baseball term, you know,

  5. a lot of times they go now y'all need to go take the field.

  6. And so that means the players come out of the dugout, they get

  7. in the field, they're there to play ball, OK.

  8. And you know, we are to be in the game, all right, for the

  9. Kingdom of God. We need to take the field, all

  10. right. And if we if there's ever been a

  11. time to take the field, it's now as the day approaches the return

  12. of Jesus. I like what one minister says

  13. who ministers a lot on end times.

  14. He said it is a it's not an escape theology.

  15. It is a hustle theology. And he anytime he's talking

  16. about all the world events, he says so much is going on.

  17. He said there's so much happening right now.

  18. He said every day is another thing closer to it's it seems

  19. imminent that we could look up and and the trumpet could sound.

  20. And I'm telling you, you really should live at a time in this

  21. time that it could be that way. I mean, let's just I mean, I'll

  22. give you my age. I have no problem.

  23. Next, next Wednesday, I'll be 56.

  24. So I'm 55 years old, OK. And in my 55 short years on the

  25. planet, man, has things changed. I mean, things have like crazy

  26. increased how fast things are and if this happens for another

  27. 55 years. If it did, I mean at the at the

  28. rate now, I don't see how you couldn't be a believer saying

  29. he's coming in my lifetime. Now, at the end of the day, I'm

  30. not giving you a day or an hour. No one can do that.

  31. Only the father knows that. But we can definitely know the

  32. season and we should not live right now on planet Earth.

  33. Like, you know, I'm probably going to go on and I'm talking

  34. to everyone in the room, even the oldest ones in the room.

  35. You shouldn't live like it'd go past you because Jesus could

  36. come back. I said he could come back in the

  37. next 10 years. Surely you could get another 10

  38. years. I mean, think about that.

  39. Wouldn't you want if you knew, if you knew that you knew that

  40. he was coming in 10 years, wouldn't you rather change

  41. instead of picking out a coffin? Nah, just change, right?

  42. Just like watch this man and I I was praying in the in my or

  43. preserve today and I'm like Lord, I believe God that I am

  44. that generation. I can be wrong, but man, I will

  45. not come to you and you won't be able to look at me and say yeah,

  46. you, you really didn't think I was coming.

  47. Here's no way. I am firmly persuaded that it

  48. can be my generation. I want to live every day like it

  49. is my generation that'd be changed in the moment, the

  50. twinkling of an eye, which means there's a lot to do still on the

  51. planet. And if he does come in my

  52. lifetime, that gives me the privilege to be in the game and

  53. to do some really miraculous stuff in a shorter amount of

  54. time. And I'm going to show you that

  55. tonight. Whoo, glory to God.

  56. I'm so excited. I wanted to preach last night's

  57. message that I preached to the Kingdom First Business Alliance

  58. tonight so bad. Oh my gosh, it was so amazing.

  59. Oh, there was such an anointing to minister in the realm of

  60. finance last night. It was crazy.

  61. The Lord is so good. You should come to king, the

  62. first business alliance. It's amazing.

  63. Anyway, Matthew chapter 21, verse 28, let me stay focused

    Matthew 21:28

  64. for tonight. Take the field.

  65. OK? What do you think a man had how

  66. many sons? Two sons and he came to the 1st

  67. and said, son, go work today in the vineyard.

  68. And he answered, I will not. But afterward he what?

  69. He regretted it and went, The man came to the second son.

  70. Why? Because the first one said, I'm

  71. not doing it. So he comes to the second son

  72. and he said the same thing. And he answered, I will, Sir.

  73. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of

  74. his father and they said the first Jesus said truly I say to

  75. you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the

  76. Kingdom of God before you. Wow.

  77. Now he was speaking to a bunch of church folk when he was

  78. making that statement. People who now when I say

  79. church, it isn't the church he's building.

  80. It was the the Jewish religious leaders that were a part of the

  81. synagogue. And he was basically letting

  82. them know that there's a group coming into the Kingdom before

  83. you're coming because you're saying I'll do it, but you don't

  84. do it. But there's a group that's like,

  85. we don't want nothing to do with it.

  86. And then realize, man, we need to do that.

  87. And he says there are going to be these prostitutes and others,

  88. tax collectors, these people that you have that you see as

  89. loathsome and they are outside of God's Kingdom.

  90. They are deserving, you know, of the Lake of Fire.

  91. But they're going to come and do the will of the Father and

  92. they're getting him first. So we see here, he says again at

  93. the beginning of this passage, he's telling them, he says,

  94. look, there's a vineyard, sons, that I need you to work.

  95. OK, Now I want to say something here before I get to this other

  96. passage here in a second. This does not mean harvest only

  97. a vineyard has to be worked before harvest can come.

  98. Everyone wants to see harvest without first working the field.

  99. If all you're going to do is sit and say where's the harvest,

  100. then no harvest is coming because you're not in the

  101. vineyard working it. You have to work the vineyard,

  102. you have to work the field. Now let's look at this First

    1 Corinthians 3:6–9

  103. Corinthians chapter 3 verses 6 to 9 says this.

  104. He said I planted Paul talking Apollo's watered, but God caught

  105. was causing the growth. So then neither the one who

  106. plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the

  107. growth. Now he who plants and he who

  108. waters are one, but each one will receive his own reward

  109. according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers.

  110. You are God's field, God's building.

  111. So what's Paul saying here? Paul's saying is that God said

  112. to me, my father said, Son, get in the vineyard, go work it.

  113. And one thing that I needed to do to work in order for us to

  114. have the fruit of a vineyard is I needed to plant seeds.

  115. But guess what? Seeds in a field without water

  116. will not produce. So Apollos came in behind and he

  117. watered. Now the power of the seed and

  118. the power of the water over the seed only increase because of

  119. the power of God. I don't give power to the seed,

  120. nor does Apollos give power to the seed through water.

  121. God's the one working the increase, but God's using US in

  122. the field so that fruit can show up and a harvest can be there.

  123. And guess what? As I'm planting and he's

  124. watering, and I'm planting and he's watering, or he plants and

  125. I water, whatever takes place, each of us are going to receive

  126. our own reward according to our own labor.

  127. Now this labor is not a labor of salvation.

  128. This is not I'm working here, Lord, so you can recognize me.

  129. Look, all the good things I do so I can be with you forever.

  130. No, you're not even in. He's asking you to get into the

  131. field because you are part of His house.

  132. So this is not sonship issue. This is the Father's business.

  133. It's His business. And His business is that His

  134. disciples would go and bear fruit and that their fruit would

  135. remain. And He wants His disciples in

  136. the field, planting, watering, so God can cause the increase.

  137. Guess what? Right here is no planting in

  138. here, no watering. Now there's watering of the word

  139. you're growing yourself, don't get me wrong.

  140. But the field is outside the building.

  141. In essence, really when you come here, it's me saying, hey, we

  142. have a field available to plant water in this Saturday.

  143. It's called Osceola. I have a field called Osceola on

  144. March 7th and we need some people to go plant and water.

  145. Pastor Angie, would you stand up?

  146. She's going to she overseas US make a difference day.

  147. So if you're interested, we have 13 people signed up.

  148. But if you're interested, you can pop by, see her, let her

  149. know you're coming. She can tell you how you can

  150. register so we get people's name.

  151. But listen, there's the field now.

  152. Are you going to be the child that says, well, I come, OK,

  153. maybe I'm just being too bold tonight, but maybe I'm just

  154. going to keep being this bold because we cannot produce a

  155. church that is lazy, lethargic, and not committed to the

  156. community or to the work of the Father.

  157. You want to retire, go to heaven.

  158. Until then, it's time to be fruitful.

  159. It's time to be fruitful. I said it's time to be fruitful.

  160. And even if you just do with 30 minutes, I mean, or find

  161. yourself out of all the things that we do in the community and

  162. have fields out there, it you should be at you.

  163. We should go through a year and you should say, man, I've been

  164. in a couple of fields. This is not the only place you

  165. should be. Now, that doesn't mean your own

  166. sectors of society are not fields.

  167. And I know they are. So don't get me wrong.

  168. I'm not saying if you don't do something with Anchor Faith

  169. Church, that you're not in the field.

  170. If when you go to work tomorrow, guess what, welcome to the

  171. field. I get that.

  172. However, there is some things that we need to do as a body

  173. within our community that begins to demonstrate that there are

  174. people that are connected to the Kingdom of God that wants to see

  175. our community change. So much so that those sectors of

  176. society would call on us and say, can you help us?

  177. And man, when the world starts to call on you, what do you do?

  178. Do you answer or do you say, you know what?

  179. I'm busy. I got something else to do.

  180. I'm 'cause I'm telling you, if you want to harvest and when

  181. harvest hits, you can't stay home.

  182. When, when the when the fruit is ripe or it will die on the vine

  183. and all of your labor to get fruit will have been wasted

  184. 'cause it can rot in a field. And we don't want that.

  185. I do not want people to rot in our community because we were

  186. unwilling to get up and go to a field.

  187. Are you hearing what I'm saying? OK, so we're going to take the

  188. field tonight. All right?

  189. Now look at this over here in Matthew chapter 20.

    Matthew 20 chapter mention

  190. Matthew chapter 20. We'll start in verse 1.

    Matthew 20 chapter mention

  191. I feel like Apostle Marcy, I'm going to throw out a whole lot

  192. of scripture tonight, OK. And and Pastor Mike, who's a

  193. great teacher. Aren't you glad that we have

  194. gifts in the body? And there's different

  195. expressions how we how we minister the words.

  196. So they're not everybody's cookie cutter doing the exact

  197. same thing. Let me tell you something.

  198. We, our staff are not echoes. They do not pair it.

  199. They get the word, they hear the word and they deliver it in the

  200. giftings that they are, they've been assigned.

  201. I'm not a parrot. I'm not an echo.

  202. I'm hearing the voice of God and sending it out in the gift that

  203. God's called me to do. And all the gifts are necessary.

  204. Look for the Kingdom of heaven is what for the Kingdom of

  205. heaven is. For the Kingdom of heaven is for

  206. the Kingdom of heaven is for the Kingdom of heaven is.

  207. This is teaching us how the Kingdom functions and the

  208. Kingdom of heaven is not stuck in heaven.

  209. Heaven is a place, earth is a place, and the Kingdom can be in

  210. both. And Jesus when he says the

  211. Kingdom of heaven is like or the Kingdom of God is like, what

  212. he's saying is here's a principle that you can function

  213. in right now because Jesus said repent for the Kingdom of heaven

  214. is at hand. It's within your midst.

  215. So he's like, do you want the Kingdom of heaven to be within

  216. your midst? Let me give you an example.

  217. Here's a parable. It's like this, a landowner who

  218. went out early in the morning to what?

  219. Hire laborers for his, for his what?

  220. And when I read that today because I had another scripture

  221. I was going to start with, and but I'll end with it.

  222. I was going to start with it. And I read it to myself.

  223. And then I went over here and I said, oh, this is a problem.

  224. I hadn't seen that all this time.

  225. I'm assuming I'm thinking because harvest, harvest,

  226. harvest, harvest is in our minds so much harvest, harvest,

  227. harvest that the landowner is hiring these people to get a

  228. harvest in. But it doesn't say that.

  229. It just says to work the vineyard.

  230. And vineyards are worked not only at harvest time.

  231. You've got to trim vines. You've got to prune, fertilize,

  232. water, pluck things out. In fact, vineyards, because

  233. they're vines, you have to help, you know, bond some of their

  234. vines up. So because they droop too long.

  235. I mean, you know, I'm not a great guy and I do not study

  236. wineries, OK? I've seen them.

  237. I've been in their vineyards. I've even gone to some wineries

  238. without ever tasting it. And that's true 'cause I don't

  239. drink wine. But with that being said,

  240. there's more of a process and he's just asking for laborers to

  241. work his vineyard. This may not be Harvest, Tom.

  242. So verse 2. And when they had agreed with a

  243. laborer for a denarius, for a denarius for the day, he sent

  244. them into the vineyard. And he went about the third hour

  245. and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

  246. And to those he said, you also go to the vineyard, and whatever

  247. is right, I'll give you. And so they went.

  248. And again he went about the 6th hour and the 9th hour and did

  249. the same thing. And about the 11th hour he went

  250. out and found others standing around and he said to them, why

  251. have you been standing here idle all day long?

  252. Now look at their answer. He said, be he, They said to

  253. him, because no one has hired us.

  254. He said to them, go, you go into the vineyard too.

  255. Now before I go on to this, other parts of Scripture, they

  256. answer him about idleness, that we aren't idle, we just haven't

  257. been hired. So these weren't people who were

  258. lazy. These weren't people who showed

  259. up after lunch because he said why you been hanging out idle

  260. all day. Because when the landowner came,

  261. he had in his mind how many laborers he thought he would

  262. need for his vineyard. So he hires right out the

  263. beginning of the day, which means there were more there than

  264. just the ones he hired. And he took them and they

  265. started to work. And he began to realize, huh, we

  266. might need some more. So he goes back to the same

  267. place, and there are still people there that maybe to his

  268. surprise, well, not every landowner needed everybody

  269. today. And there's still some good

  270. news. Come work with me in the third

  271. hour. Come work with me in the sixth

  272. hour. Come work with me in the ninth

  273. hour. And there's only one hour left.

  274. And he's like, we could use some more.

  275. Why is he going back into town for an hour?

  276. I mean, seriously, why could this landowner say, I have been

  277. to the marketplace at the beginning of the day, the third

  278. hour, the 6th hour, the night there I have had four rounds of

  279. hiring. I have one hour left.

  280. Why would I waste my time to leave the field and go back to

  281. the marketplace to see if anyone else is there?

  282. But he does, I said, but he does and he sees some and he's like,

  283. y'all been just hanging out all day.

  284. What y'all idle for? And they go, no Sir, not us.

  285. We've been here all day just looking for the opportunity.

  286. And he says, go get my field. Now here's the thing that Bishop

  287. Tony from India, when he came here and informed us because

  288. again this is Eastern things, they had a Daenerys today.

  289. But what he was saying to them was you go to my field, which

  290. means what? Tomorrow you're in my field and

  291. the next day you're in my field and you'll be in my field till

  292. harvest comes. That's why they would wait all

  293. day because if they were able to get in anyone's field, it was

  294. work till the harvest came in. Now the Bible doesn't tell us

  295. when harvest is coming. It's just go work the vineyard.

  296. But now they have been hired and the only way they're not going

  297. to stay in this field is if they fail to perform in the field

  298. they've been assigned. Oh y'all should write that down.

  299. The only reason why they are not going to be in this field is if

  300. they fail to perform in the field they have been hired or

  301. assigned to. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

  302. So it says when evening came, because obviously they did day

  303. wage there. And it says this when evening

  304. came, the owner of the vineyard said to the foreman, call the

  305. laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last

  306. group to the 1st. And when those hired about the

  307. 11th hour came, each one received what he paid them, not

  308. for their idleness, but for their patient endurance.

  309. Come on. Right, 'cause he asked them.

  310. Y'all idle all day. Someone just said, yeah.

  311. I mean, I, I, I got up late. It was a long night.

  312. I just thought I'd show up here. You know, it's kind of hoping

  313. nobody was coming. I'm really surprised you're

  314. here, you know, 'cause then I could go sneak back home to my

  315. wife and say, you know, didn't get hired today, 'cause I've

  316. been boozing it up in a bar or I was hanging out with some guys

  317. and now I show up in the last hour to make it look like I'm

  318. trying to get a job, right? You know, I'll get to service a

  319. little bit later. I'll leave a little bit earlier.

  320. OK. So when the first came, they

  321. gave him a Daenerys. Now when they receipt it says

  322. and when those first came they thought that they will receive

  323. more. But each of them also received a

  324. denarius. And when they received it they

  325. grumbled at the landowner saying the last men have only worked

  326. one hour and you have made them equal to us who have bore the

  327. burden in the scorching heat of the day.

  328. But he answered and said to them, Friend, I am doing you no

  329. wrong. Did you not agree with me for

  330. denarius? Take what is yours.

  331. Go. But I wish to give to the last

  332. man the same as you. Is it not lawful for me to do

  333. what I wish with my own, with what is my own?

  334. He said, Is your I envious because I am generous?

  335. So the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

  336. So here is a group of people that he is saying, listen, I

  337. need you to get in the field. They're getting into the field

  338. based upon the the very first one is the only ones that he

  339. negotiated a clear expectation of what they will receive.

  340. The rest he said I'll give what's right will give us right,

  341. will give us right because it says and he did this the 6th and

  342. the 9th. But the next group he said y'all

  343. go in the field and they did. They didn't even ask.

  344. They didn't say what are we going to give for an hour.

  345. They were just thankful to be in the field.

  346. They were just thankful that the owner was willing to call them

  347. to call them out and move them into purpose.

  348. Are you hearing me? Well, there's a few things we

  349. can learn from this. The first thing is all hands

  350. need to be on deck in the last of the last days.

  351. It is not a time for us to idly let the world go by and just go

  352. and let the fields go by without us saying, Lord, what field You

  353. need me working today because every day is a day you can work

  354. a field. The next thing we need to know

  355. is this. If you are receiving what has

  356. been spoken and agreed upon, then rejoice.

  357. And here's the thing about when you when God asks you to do

  358. something for him, come serve me, come follow me.

  359. He will let you know what is available to you because he's a

  360. good Father. Jesus will let you know what's

  361. your covenant right? What you have access to, what He

  362. wants to be at your disposal so that you can accomplish what

  363. He's asking you to accomplish in the field He's assigned to you.

  364. And when it comes in, you should rejoice.

  365. Glory to God, not look at what someone else is doing in a field

  366. and become envious, right? Rejoice.

  367. Each receives their reward regardless the time, which just

  368. tells me about God. God is God is not concerned

  369. about unions. But God does want you faithful

  370. once you put your hand to the plow.

  371. See, when you put your hand to the plow, God wants you

  372. faithful, and he doesn't want you looking back, taking breaks,

  373. burying your talent so you can go do your own deal.

  374. And then when he comes later, say I gave you back exactly what

  375. you gave me, say Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

  376. Because again, Christ has paid too big of a price for us and

  377. has given us His nature. And out of that nature it's easy

  378. for us. Again, I am not working fields

  379. because I have to. I work fields because I am

  380. excited through my nature 'cause it's in the nature of my King.

  381. And my King only had one awesome desire.

  382. Didn't you know I'd be about my Father's business?

  383. It is just natural for me to want to be about my father's

  384. business because it was about my King's business.

  385. And my King's nature is in me. And I'm not doing this to

  386. impress Dad. I'm doing this because I love

  387. Dad, because I want to be the son that and and as his son, I

  388. have said to Dad, man, I don't want to do that.

  389. Just like Jesus said to dad, I really don't want to do that,

  390. but not my will, but your will be done.

  391. So we'll do it anyway, right. There's been many a Sunday

  392. mornings like you, I didn't want to come.

  393. There's been many things that you know, somebody calls and

  394. there's something you're like, I really don't want to go.

  395. I really don't want to have this conversation.

  396. I don't really want to deal with that conflict.

  397. But not my will. His will be done and the great

  398. shows up and He's pleased with me because my life's not my own.

  399. And I want to get in the field and affect the field.

  400. I want to plant water wherever I need to, to be effective for my

  401. God, my King, my Lord, my Savior, and my Father who is in

  402. heaven. That's good.

  403. See, in the end, we need everyone in their gift doing

  404. their part to bring in the harvest.

  405. And harvest comes in only after you've taken time to actually

  406. work the field and prepare it to be a harvest.

  407. You understand, people who come into the Kingdom do not come

  408. just because we say something once.

  409. Many of you did not get born again the first time you heard

  410. about Jesus. In fact, the first time you

  411. heard about Jesus, like, whatever.

  412. Shut up. You know, religious junk, right?

  413. You drank a little bit more, slept a little bit more, do a

  414. few more drugs, all kinds of stuff.

  415. You're like, forget that. That's stupid, right?

  416. I mean, Evelyn, stand up. I mean her, her, her, her

  417. coworker asked you how many, how many times?

  418. Over 60 invitations. Come to church with me.

  419. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.

  420. But what was he doing? Planting, watering, planting,

  421. watering, planting, watering. He kept going to work in that

  422. field and she kept showing up because she loved the money.

  423. The money that was helping her with her family and he was

  424. saying there's something bigger than the money and and there's

  425. someone who can help you with your problems and the stuff

  426. you're going. Why don't you just come to

  427. church with me? I'm thankful he worked the field

  428. because this woman has been a blessing and and she's just one

  429. of it. Many in this room that you could

  430. say, I can look at all of you and say how much of A blessing

  431. you've been to our lives because somebody was in your field

  432. planting it, the word in your heart, watering that thing.

  433. And God all the while was bringing the increase.

  434. And when you were in your bed sleeping, God was talking to

  435. you, reminding you there was something better.

  436. And then on the 60th time and and it could be tell me if I'm

  437. right. Yes.

  438. So you'll quit talking to me? I found out last night that

  439. Evelyn came to church on June the 7th, 2009.

  440. Anchor Fete Church when we were over in Cobblestone and it was

  441. her official last service. She came with her husband and

  442. she all intentions. She told me this last time.

  443. I'm like I didn't know this. She came to church on June the

  444. 7th, 2009. It was her fifth time she has

  445. met the obligation that she put in her own mind.

  446. So I said you can't experience us in one service.

  447. You got to come back. At least she's like, oh, I'm

  448. obligated now, fine, I'll come. So she's at her fifth time and

  449. she's like, I'm when I leave today, I'm telling Ernie I'm

  450. never coming back. We're done.

  451. But guess what happened? On June 7th, 2009, we preached

  452. the Kingdom of God for the very first time.

  453. And Evelyn said it changed my life and I'm like, where else am

  454. I going to go? And now it's 2026.

  455. Evelyn's on the back row. Got a little Baptist roots in

  456. her. But other than that, are you

  457. hearing me? Aren't you glad somebody was

  458. working your field? They didn't get tired, they

  459. didn't give up. I shudder to think of the fields

  460. that have been abandoned because the believer quit going about

  461. the father's business because at 58 times decided I'm done with

  462. her, she's never coming. And he was 2 asks away.

  463. Hallelujah. Are you hearing me?

  464. Oh, this is good stuff. So we all need to come in.

  465. So do not. Now, you understand, there's a

  466. type and shadow here that I need us to get.

  467. And I have used this in our leadership teaching with the

  468. church because we've been here 22 years come April since we

  469. lost the church. And there are some people who've

  470. been here the whole time and we've had tears of people that

  471. have been here that different times.

  472. And I have to let you know, if you've been here for a while,

  473. you have labored, you have you have shared the burden and the

  474. scorching heap of different trials.

  475. But make no mistake, somebody can show up here and I've only

  476. been here a year and they can get a word from God, get up on

  477. this platform and be being used by the gifts of the Spirit.

  478. So we don't want to be envious because it seems like, wow, this

  479. person is functioning in a way that I've been here so long, how

  480. come I don't do that? Because in the end, God needs

  481. all of us on deck in the field. What you need to do is you need

  482. to rejoice that they are being used and that God in this small

  483. sliver of time wants to pour out on them the the measure that

  484. you're receiving yourself. Because if we look at the

  485. denarius as the reward of the Kingdom, wouldn't you want

  486. anyone to get the reward, whether it was 20 years in the

  487. faith or three months? And in these last days, we don't

  488. have the time. If He's coming, we don't have

  489. the time anymore to be able to raise them up through certain

  490. trials and tribulations that took you.

  491. We are going to have to. God's going to accelerate those

  492. purposes. That way we all can be fit to

  493. work the field and bring in that harvest before the trumpet

  494. sounds, whatever that looks like.

  495. Hallelujah. So you know, you should rejoice

  496. when you see new people and they're like excited and they

  497. want to get working. What you shouldn't do is say,

  498. well, I've done Osceola the last five or six years, Let the young

  499. people do it. That shouldn't be your thought.

  500. Whether you go or not is not predicated on let the new

  501. people. That's not why we do something.

  502. It could be that, you know, you're doing something else with

  503. the ministry. You're in another field, pretty

  504. consistent, and now you can't do that.

  505. I mean, I remember when I went to PCI, Putnam Correction

  506. Institute, what time is it? Putnam Correction Institute.

  507. And I was there every month and then we went to twice a month,

  508. right, Ernie? And then we're there and I'm

  509. like, I mean, I went every month pastoring the church.

  510. I mean, I'm doing all kinds of stuff, but I'm going there and

  511. I'm rocking. Well, then we're building teams

  512. and other people are gone and now I'm not going as often.

  513. And then I found out I didn't even go for three years once

  514. because we have a member in our church that was there and then

  515. got out, came here new people, but had never met me.

  516. And I was shocked. I'm like, has it been three

  517. years? Oh my gosh.

  518. It's not because I was like, well, I'm done with that.

  519. I'm retiring. I will never go to prison.

  520. No, it's a mandate from Scripture.

  521. I was in prison and you visited me.

  522. I still go. I still get opportunities to go.

  523. And man, I want to go. I want to get up in there and

  524. see them. Just like I want to go see a

  525. widow. I want to go see orphans.

  526. I want to go feed. I haven't been to Dynamo Dignity

  527. in a while, but guess what, dining with dignity, you know,

  528. we started that. I've been a few times, but man,

  529. people were out there in that field working it.

  530. I got this testimony for mom Don this week.

  531. This is powerful. Let me read this to you because

  532. this is what happened when when you're working the field and you

  533. are a faithful laborer. I got to put on my bionic eyes

  534. real quick says this. I might read the whole whole

  535. thing, but we there were 59 people that were that they fed

  536. on this past Monday. OK.

  537. And so Joe Patron who overseas Dining with Dignity, that's not

  538. Anchor Faith Church. It's a whole different

  539. organization. We just do the first Monday of

  540. the month. OK, So Joe Patron contacted Don

  541. and asked if our Monday night Dining with dignity team could

  542. train a new team. In essence, they shadow us.

  543. OK. And so obviously he said sure,

  544. no problem. And so there were there are 25

  545. teams total. So this is a new church within

  546. Saint Johns County and Anchor Faith Church.

  547. Joe was said was chosen as the best dining with dignity model

  548. in our community to train another team.

  549. Now, when I say that that has nothing to do with me, that has

  550. to do with us. I mean, what parent, what parent

  551. would not when their child wins a game or spelling bee or

  552. something like you're awesome. How awesome is that?

  553. That doesn't mean the parents like, yeah, I'm the best parent

  554. in the world. Look at my child, when I'm

  555. talking about Don, I'm talking about the leadership, I'm

  556. talking about those who are overseeing it.

  557. I'm talking about the group that's running with that.

  558. I'm not even there, but they are running this thing so awesome

  559. that Joe's like, listen, they are really a great team to to

  560. flow with and they shadowed us and they worked and then they

  561. got to pray with them and all kinds of stuff.

  562. They laid out the standard of how we did it and they, the

  563. pastor said to Don and Michelle said Joe told us that Anchor

  564. Faith Church runs like a well oiled machine.

  565. Well, I'm rejoicing the Lord for that.

  566. And as a church we should rejoice in the word Lord for

  567. that. Because you want to run at such

  568. a place in such a way that you can be bold enough like Paul and

  569. say you want to imitate you imitate me as I imitate Christ.

  570. We want to raise up teams that become such a standard that

  571. other churches would say these people exhibit the Kingdom

  572. culture and man, we want to go and learn from that, grow from

  573. that, and then let's replicate it.

  574. Because I would suspect that these guys could get so awesome

  575. that Joe then says, man, I got a couple of groups you could

  576. shadow. Because what anchor faith train

  577. those people are reciprocating. And in that what God wants is

  578. that he can train us by the Holy Ghost so that we reciprocate him

  579. in the earth at such a level that it's like little Jesus is

  580. all over the place, right? It's Christ in us.

  581. The work that he did we get to do.

  582. And this is wreaking havoc on the devil.

  583. It's wreaking havoc havoc. We're not afraid of the field.

  584. I said we're not afraid of the field.

  585. And so I'm thankful for those who are going in the field.

  586. Now with that being said, turn to Isaiah chapter 5.

    Isaiah 5 chapter mention

  587. Say Amen. In Isaiah chapter 5, we'll start

    Isaiah 5 chapter mention

  588. in verse one. God takes His field seriously.

  589. OK, in Isaiah 5, one through 7, this is the Old Testament con

  590. Old Testament passage, but it has New Testament impact.

  591. Can you always interpret the Old Testament in light of the new?

  592. We're in a new and better covenant, which really means

  593. we're in a more responsible covenant with less excuses.

  594. And I might have to teach on that a little bit later because

  595. we say new and better people act like it's easier and do less,

  596. and that's not the new covenant. The new covenant is I have less,

  597. I have less excuse in this covenant than the old covenant

  598. people did because I am born of God and the Holy Ghost does live

  599. in me and God speaks to me himself and confirms the things

  600. that are being. I'm being instructed my nature's

  601. different. Unlike the old covenant people,

  602. They're trying to earn identity. We function from identity,

  603. totally different. Which means the Lord's like,

  604. what's your excuse? You're one of my children.

  605. You have my nature. I've given you my spirit.

  606. It's not stuck up in a box or a temple.

  607. He's in you. Oh, all right.

  608. Let me sing now for my well beloved, a song of my beloved

  609. concerning my his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard

  610. on a fertile hill. Isaiah the prophet saying he dug

  611. it all around, removed its stones and planted it with the

  612. choicest bonds. What kind of bonds?

  613. The best of the best of the best.

  614. And he built a tower in the middle of it.

  615. And he also hewed out a wine bat in it.

  616. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced

  617. only worthless ones, he says. And now all inhabitants of

  618. Jerusalem, men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard, what

  619. more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in

  620. it? Why then I why, when I expected

  621. it to produce good grapes, did I did it produce worthless ones?

  622. Oh, yeah. Wow.

  623. So now let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard.

  624. I will remove its heads and it will be consumed.

  625. I will break down its walls and it will become trampled ground.

  626. I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed,

  627. but briars and thorns will come up.

  628. I will also charge the clouds to rain.

  629. No rain on it. He's talking about his nation,

  630. Israel, specifically Jerusalem and Judea.

  631. Judah here. He had that.

  632. He's given them everything to produce the culture of the

  633. Kingdom and yet they only wanted to produce the cultures around

  634. them. In essence, in my vineyard I

  635. expect my culture. Cause Israel had the Creator as

  636. their king. There was no excuse for them to

  637. live like the rest of the nations.

  638. In fact, if you read Deuteronomy 28, he tells us that you'll be

  639. such an example that the nations will look to you.

  640. So when he planted this vineyard and he put his people in it, His

  641. covenant people, he expected it to produce.

  642. It's the culture, so much so that the other nations would be

  643. drawn to its light. So God is serious about what is

  644. being produced within His vineyard.

  645. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now look at this passage in

  646. Matthew 2133 to 46. Here's the thing.

  647. If we do not take the field for Him, He will take the field from

  648. us. If we do not take the field for

  649. him, he will take the field from us.

  650. He said listen to another parable.

  651. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a

  652. wall around it and dug a wine press in it and build a tower.

  653. Sounds a lot like Isaiah and rented it out to vine growers

  654. and went on a journey. In essence, he said, I need you

  655. to labor in my vineyard, it says, and when the harvest time

  656. approached, which means they were in the vineyard before

  657. harvest came, they were responsible to work it.

  658. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slave to

  659. the vine growers to receive its produce.

  660. The vine growers looked to his slaves and beat 1 and killed

  661. another and stoned the third. Oh, again, he sent another group

  662. of slaves larger than the first, and they did the same thing to

  663. him. But afterwards he sent his son

  664. to them, saying, they will what? Respect my son?

  665. And when the vine growers saw the son, they said among

  666. themselves, this is the air. Come, let us kill him and seize

  667. his inheritance. Oh my gosh, whose vineyard is

  668. it? The landowner, the master?

  669. Again, we just saw this with Isaiah.

  670. And in essence, this parable, the Lord is basically saying,

  671. the slaves I sent were my prophets.

  672. I sent my prophets. They came to talk to you and you

  673. just killed them. And now here's my son, which

  674. Jesus is, that's me. And he's just telling his

  675. disciples what's going to happen, right?

  676. So Jesus is talking about himself and they took him, threw

  677. him out of the vineyard and killed him.

  678. Now verse 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes,

  679. what will he do to those vine growers?

  680. And they said to him, he will bring those wretched wretcheds

  681. to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to A to other

  682. vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper

  683. season. When we're working the field,

  684. it's not for us, it's for him. All fruit is his and if we don't

  685. understand, we're having the responsibility to go in these

  686. different sectors of society and fields to be a example, knowing

  687. we're not representing us, we're representing the owner of the

  688. field and how we work. This field represents him and we

  689. want this field to look amazing. You want, we want Saint

  690. Augustine to look so amazing that if we left, they would feel

  691. we were gone. They would regret this church

  692. wasn't here. They'd regret it because of how

  693. we work those fields, our attitude, our actions, our

  694. behavior, our attention to detail, all of this.

  695. I mean, I was just recently at a particular restaurant.

  696. There are quite a few waitresses and waiters that I have been

  697. influencing with the Kingdom for quite some time.

  698. Well, there's this one particular one that I went was

  699. going to the restroom and stopped and was talking to him a

  700. little bit and they were saying how they weren't feeling well.

  701. And in my spirit the Lord said pray for him.

  702. Now I have not prayed for him up to this point all this time.

  703. I've demonstrated the Kingdom in multiple other ways, but the

  704. Lord gave me an in route with his name, meaning for his name's

  705. sake to invoke the name of Jesus.

  706. So I looked down and said, hey, and they all know that I'm the

  707. pastor here and they go online. I know.

  708. And many of their lifestyles are not conducive to the culture of

  709. the Kingdom, but they're drawn. I get it.

  710. And I said, hey, can I pray for you?

  711. And they said, yeah. And so I prayed with them right

  712. there in the restaurant, right there in the restaurant.

  713. Didn't belabor, didn't go long. Because I know our authority.

  714. I know the authority of the name of Jesus said in the name of

  715. Jesus, Amen. Now I've not honestly, I went

  716. out of town after that, so I technically I haven't even seen

  717. the individual after that. I can't wait to see him and say,

  718. hey, remember the other day when I prayed with you?

  719. How'd that go, 'cause I expect him to say, you know, that night

  720. I was better 'cause I said, Lord, you let him know the name

  721. of Jesus is the healer. I'm working that field.

  722. Nice guy, but I know things are going on in his life.

  723. Why 'cause it's amazing how people just talk to you.

  724. I have many confessional times while ordering unsweet teeth and

  725. I don't mind it. Look, I don't mind it.

  726. Why 'cause I'm in the field, 'cause when I'm here, I'm not in

  727. the field. When I'm here, I'm empowering

  728. you to be in the field. We're hearing from heaven so

  729. that we can go out into the field.

  730. So these are the few places that I get to go because most of the

  731. time I'm training and equipping Saints more so than I'm out and

  732. about. OK, But he goes on and says this

  733. Jesus says, did you ever read the Scripture?

  734. The stone which the builders rejected, they became the chief

  735. cornerstone, and this came from the Lord.

  736. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you that the

  737. Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a

  738. people producing the fruit of it now.

  739. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but

  740. whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

  741. Let's keep reading then the chief that's the religious, the

  742. chief priests and the Pharisees heard this parable.

  743. They what what they do. They understood that he was

  744. speaking about them. So you know what somebody come

  745. to me and say, well, I think you're preaching about me.

  746. Maybe I am. Maybe the Lord wants it that

  747. pointed without us actually calling your name out.

  748. And if you understand it is what should you do?

  749. Repent 'cause if you don't, then you'll be like the Pharisees.

  750. And what's the next thing when they then when they thought he's

  751. speaking, when they knew he's speaking about him, when they

  752. sought to seize him, they feared the people because they

  753. considered him. So they were like, let's kill

  754. this guy now. And I'm sure people have walked

  755. out of here not wanting me to continue to live.

  756. That's not I'm serious. Because the Word is going to do

  757. something in your life. Because a life outside of the

  758. Kingdom of God is not conducive to the Kingdom of God.

  759. If it was, then really there'd be really no reason for God to

  760. have to have anyone saved. Just come like you are.

  761. Salvation is irrelevant, but it's a change of being.

  762. What do we learn from this passage?

  763. We cannot become a church that is in a community that is doing

  764. everything to get guests to show up, but really have no heart for

  765. our community. If this is the only place people

  766. are being saved, we are failing. And I would even say this, if

  767. this is the only place that people are making a confession,

  768. they may just be being converted.

  769. They could be saying something with their mouth and their

  770. hearts. Far from it.

  771. God never designed us just to win loss.

  772. God designed us to change, transform, and then go into our

  773. world and be the light that shines on a consistent basis.

  774. Honestly, people, you should be bringing people to church that

  775. when the altar call comes, you're say, I know you're

  776. already saved, but let's let everybody know this happened

  777. today, this week at work and you just come down with them that we

  778. can testify. So and so got born again this

  779. week at work. So and so got born again and

  780. then our water baptism should be overflowing with people.

  781. Last scripture is this, which I thought I was going to start

  782. with, but we'll end Matthew 9. Hallelujah.

  783. My watch just said it looks like you fell.

  784. Is there an emergency? I'm OK, I did not fall.

  785. Hallelujah. Probably shouldn't wear the

  786. Apple Watch anymore. I wish it would make this a

  787. workout. You know, I tried that one time.

  788. I'm like, I move so much. I should get a workout out of

  789. this. So I hit it as a workout, you

  790. know, but then I would slow enough this like, do you want to

  791. pause your workout? I'm like, so I quit doing that.

  792. Hallelujah. Matthew 9 here we go.

  793. We're closing Matthew 93738. And he said to him.

  794. Then he said to his disciples, are you his disciple?

  795. Are you? Then you better listen to this.

  796. Then, he said to his disciples. The harvest is plentiful, but

  797. the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of

  798. the harvest to send out workers into his field.

  799. Coach Hurley, Coach Taylor with SJA or in the field of

  800. cultivating young men in athletics, and our youth pastor.

  801. Pastor Chase wanted to be a part of the planting and watering and

  802. gained permission to put a box in the dugout and he put a

  803. sticker, the current put a sticker anchor Faith Church, a

  804. little lock on it with a code and filled it with sour gummies,

  805. seeds, you know, things that baseball people.

  806. And he said, the coach told me today, he said the all the sour

  807. candy's gone. He said it made it to the third

  808. inning, he said, But we scored more runs that game.

  809. I said we'll make sure we get a lot of gummies up in there.

  810. Don't think something that simple, though, demonstrates the

  811. Kingdom. We care about you.

  812. We'll bring provision to you. We notice you, but you have to

  813. be thinking about the field. And Pastor Chase first started

  814. over there by just taking photos and then posting them.

  815. And they would see themselves and like it and open the door

  816. that they would start coming to service.

  817. But what's he doing? He's taking the field as they

  818. take the field champion their lives because at the end of the

  819. day, they may go through multiple seasons, graduate and

  820. go on, and we don't see that they came to the Lord.

  821. But one day, one day that person to come by as a laborer for

  822. Jesus and they'll come into the Kingdom.

  823. When they come into the Kingdom, God will remind them of every

  824. one of those opportunities and they'll say I'll remember When

  825. work in the field, every day is monotonous, it can be tiring, it

  826. can be full of trouble, it's sweat.

  827. But the day's coming that there's harvest.

  828. And I do not want Anchor Faith Church to miss out on a harvest

  829. because we were sitting here waiting for a harvest and not in

  830. a field working for a harvest. When I say working, we were Co

  831. laboring with Christ to touch people's lives.