Dust and Destiny - Kingdom Purpose with Joshua Clay

So tonight the the title of my message is Dust and Destiny and

I'm going to talk to you about purpose because it's important

for us to hear from from the word.

How is what is God's overall purpose?

And then how do I personally fit into that?

See what we we have a problem in the United States and we're not

even filming. So I get to how could you come

off the stage. We have a problem in the United

States that we've made this gospel of Jesus a personal

gospel where Jesus came just for you, you only if he would have

died, you know, for for only you, he would have came and done

it. But what we've done is removed

one of the most important parts of the Word of God, which is the

corporate anointing or the corporate goal.

God has it. It is irrefutable.

God cares about you personally. However, He doesn't care about

you personally more than He cares about His corporate goal,

His corporate mission, His corporate plan.

You aren't His plan, but you fit in His plan and a lot of people

will will will, you know, around the world be ministering on.

Oh well, you know, it's your personal relationship with

Jesus. But tonight we're going to see

your personal purpose is always attached to God's corporate

purpose. But for us to really to to

understand where we fit in this, we have to look at God's big

picture. I can't, I can't ever get up

here and not give you the full context of the Bible because the

question that we ask in our hearts of where do I fit into

God's story that he's telling? He's the ultimate author.

There's never been a more epic, glorious story ever told than

the one that God has pinned with his own words and he's written

us into it. But the problem is too much of

humanity doesn't know where they fit into this story.

They think that they also have to pick up a pen and write

themselves into his notebook. And that's not the goal.

The goal is to find out what has he pinned about you before you

were ever born. So the first thing I want to

look at is the 1st chapter, the first page of the whole Bible.

God answers a deep theological question that so many places are

asking that every human heart is asking and that is why do we

exist? Why do we as humanity exist?

And in Genesis chapter one verse 26 y'all been here before verse

26 he says it says then God said who said this?

He says let us make man in our image.

Who's he making man or mankind? He says and let them rule over

the birds of the of the fish of the sea, over the birds of the

sky over the cattle, over all the earth and every creeping

thing that creeps upon the earth.

This verse sets the stage for the purpose of humanity.

He says the most powerful 3 words that he can say over human

beings and it's not I love you, it's let them rule.

That's the most powerful thing he's ever spoken to.

Your destiny that we were created for the Earth to rule

over this planet. Psalm 1/15/16 We've heard this

before, but it's worth repeating over and over and over again.

And I'll never get up in this platform and not say this until

I see everybody actually doing it and believing it.

But Psalm 1/15/16 says the heavens, the highest heavens of

the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons

of men. Who has he given the earth to?

So whenever we look, I'm going to, I'm going to, I have so

much. But what we're going to go

through briefly, I'm going to paraphrase the story in Genesis

that happened in the garden. Because truly all of us are

haunted by Eden. We're haunted by what happened

in there. It shows for some reason the

Eden story of humanity shows up in every other tale ever told.

It shows up in every moment of your life where you have to make

a decision. Eden shows up there somewhere.

What happened in that garden affects your decisions right

now. You're never free from that.

See, God said let us make man, and he gave him rulership and he

gave him a Kingdom and said you will rule this planet just like

I rule heaven. And then the enemy came in and

wanted that rulership. He tricked Eve.

Then Eve gave to her husband. They disobeyed the king.

Through disobeying God's way of doing things on the planet, they

forfeited their dominion. So I want to you, if you're

taking notes tonight, I want you to write this down.

Ignorance of your assignment always results in abusing your

dominion. Ignorance of your assignment

always results in abusing your dominion.

Every time. If you don't know why something

exists, you don't know what something is for, you will use

it for a purpose that was it was never intended for.

Eve was given a free will, and yet her ignorance of knowing why

she was in the planet and what God's will truly was, and her

arguing back and forth trying to determine what is God's will and

having a theological debate with the enemy is what she did.

It was a theological debate. What does the word say?

Oh, that's not what the word says.

Is that not what? That's what happened.

The same thing that happened in the garden is the same thing

that happens now in people's living rooms.

Oh, that's not what he said. That's not what he meant.

Can you imagine the serpent? He's like, listen, what are we

living in? We're living a day like 30.

That was 30 days ago. That was a different time.

He must have meant something else.

That was from the beginning. Don't eat that tree in the

beginning. But now we're we're deeper into

this. What did God say?

See, mankind was designed and destined to hear the word of the

King, obey the word of the king, and in doing so they would

dominate and rule their circumstances.

So we can stay the rest of the night right here in just this

one passage, because really, if you dissect and break this down

you we can see the opposite take place.

If mankind was designed to hear the word of the King, obey the

word of the king, and then dominate the earth.

That means if we go backwards, if mankind doesn't obey the word

of the king, what do they forfeit?

Their dominion, their overall general purpose.

So tonight I want you to know in starting out, people have asked

this question and they're going to it's it's a question that

everybody's going to have to ask at some point in their walk with

God. And that is what is my purpose?

But you will never walk in your personal assignment until you

understand and walk in God's general assignment for humanity.

You have to understand where your personal assignment fits

into the bigger picture because when we over personalize the

gospel, when we over personalize the work of Jesus that he did

through his death, burial, resurrection, what we do is try

to find ourselves isolated with just us and God when God is not

just a you and him God. He's always been a corporate

God. He's always been a God that

overseas nations and has covenants with nations and

multitudes of people. In the very end, he doesn't come

back just for Brian. He comes back for his whole

church, which means I want to be part of the corporate yet still

be an individual. So we say, well, what's my

purpose? We'll get there.

We got a, we got two hours. Pastor Chase is in there.

And I was like, man, I'm going to go a long time so you can go

as long as you want. We were like, yeah, fist bone

tonight. Let's look at Isaiah 96 kind of

reiterates and and sends this point home.

Isaiah Chapter 9 verse 6 is the prophet Isaiah foretelling of

Isaiah 9:6

Jesus coming and he says, listen, a child will be born to

us, a son will be given and the government say government will

rest on his shoulders. So then if we Fast forward to

the New Testament and we know that the church is the body of

Christ, where is the government of God?

Resting on his shoulders, which is on his body.

So we house the government of God.

So you have a part to play in God's Kingdom government on this

earth. But the reason the title of my

message starts out with dust is because when he formed Adam out

of the dust of the ground, where did he get that dust from?

You can answer, you can. It's we're not even filming the

message. You can respond.

The dust came from the earth. Adam was made out of the place

that he was assigned. His assignment was part of his

DNA. It says that he formed him out

of the dust of the ground and then he breathed life into him.

Which means Adam is made out of the earth and out of God.

But then where did God say was the best place for him to be?

It says and God placed him where?

In the garden? Where was the garden?

So God's very best for humanity when he created the perfect man

who didn't know sin was that he would be made out of the earth,

placed in the earth. And then God gave him an

assignment to be the first scientist, right?

Think about it. He he told him, name all the

animals that's science. And he's like, tend all these

plants. He's a botanist as well.

So God gave him this assignment to do a work to do in the place

he assigned him, which was planet earth.

So was Adam's very best that he could operate in to do God's

will on this planet what he was made for and created for or was

his best to just be in the presence of God in heaven?

So we know that the that somewhere the gospel with finger

quotes. That's for the recording because

they don't see me. So I have to do this.

The gospel got off somewhere when it started to act like

God's very best was somewhere else.

No, God's very best for your life is right now right on this

place. If it wasn't, then why did Jesus

have to come and die if this whole thing was about holding on

until one day we gets better somewhere else, One day I'll be

living somewhere else with him and everything will be all put

together. That's old covenant that did not

require Jesus blood. Jesus's blood, his death, burial

and resurrection came and redeemed and restored you back

to what Adam lost. So your general purpose as human

beings is to reign and dominate this present life on this

planet. So the idea that I'll just hold

on until it gets better. No, no, no.

Jesus came so that you could make it better.

I need more Jesus. No, you don't.

You need more revelation and knowledge about what you already

have. See, when you're ignorant of

your assignment, when you're ignorant, you begin to abuse

whatever it is you're ignorant about.

So every human being born that doesn't hear the good news of

the Kingdom begins to abuse their lives.

Abuse is simply just using something for a purpose, for a

function that it was never intended to.

You know, there's a, there's a funny story and I, you know, I

kind of promised myself I wouldn't tell this story because

I think it's dumb, but you know what?

I'm going to tell it anyway. There's this, this, this funny

story. When I, when I was a kid, I

heard this and this, this gentleman would chop down trees

for a living. He used axes, OK?

And he would go in and chop down trees and somebody one day

brought him a chainsaw and he's like, wow.

They, they said this should make your job 10 times faster.

So he takes that chainsaw out and comes back drenched in sweat

the next day, gives it back to the man and throws the chainsaw

on the ground and goes, it took me all day to do 1 tree with

this stupid thing. The guy was like, sorry, I

thought this would help. He's like, he didn't help at

all. It's awful.

Guys like, well, let me see what's wrong with it.

And went and pulled the thing and the guy goes, whoa, what's

that? See, he didn't understand how it

was supposed to function. He didn't realize you turn it on

and it actually makes your life easier.

All he was given was something that he didn't know how it

operated and then goes out and begins to abuse himself and his

time in the resource that he was given because he just didn't

know how it was supposed to function yet.

All of us are born with God's word being available, but not

inside of us yet. We've got, we've got, you know,

a, a nation of people that are medicated that deal with

depression, that are, that are having to go on, you know,

vacations to try to escape their problems in their lives.

And they're having to get counseling from world counselors

that all they can ever give them is just, well, you know, maybe,

maybe try to think positive thoughts.

And nobody's going back to the word except for the church,

because the church is the one, the only ones that can help.

The church is the only source that you can go to to get the

actual user manual. If you don't know why you exist,

you'll abuse your life. You'll end up doing things with

your time and your dominion that actually are counterproductive

to your Kingdom assignment. Now when I keep saying purpose

in assignment, I think we should read Jeremiah chapter one verse

5. This speaks to the heart of God

and he's talking to the prophet Jeremiah that we know, you know,

lived in a in a difficult time, but had a direct communication

with God as a prophet. And he says before I formed you

in the womb, I knew you. Before I formed you in the womb,

I knew you. And before you were born, I

consecrated you. Consecrated is a very Bible word

that just means I set you apart for something special.

But this doesn't go just for this prophet.

Every human life born into this planet, God formed in the womb,

set apart for a special unique assignment.

That's why abortion is such a tragedy.

Don't tell me it's a cluster of cells.

Even if it is cells, it's cells that were formed by God with a

set apart special assignment. So every person with a beating

heart in this room, you were born for a reason.

See, let let's think about God and his nature.

He says before you were in the womb, I knew you.

So before he ever even began to put cells together, he knew God

does nothing reactively. He's a planner, He's an author,

He's a creator. So if you're here listening to

my words right now, you were born because God first needed

you. You weren't born.

And then God said, what do we do with them?

Stephen didn't come out and God win.

Well, got to find something for him to do.

You know, Stephen came out because God said, I have a need

in the planet and I'm going to have him be born just to fulfill

this need. But you see, the late Doctor

Miles Monroe has these these four statements that we've said

often here at the church, but they just bear repeating for

tonight. He says the greatest tragedy in

life is not death. It's not somebody dying.

It is somebody living and not fulfilling their purpose is

somebody living their whole life and never even tapping into the

reason they were born and given life.

A lot of times we think when somebody passes away that that

grieves the heart of God more than when somebody lives their

life and doesn't actually follow His instruction.

See, it's important for us to say this because these are

things that deeply shaped who I am.

These are the things that I grabbed a hold of as a, as a

teenager and as a as a young adult that I moved into

following the Lord for myself because I realized nobody else

can do my assignment but me. And I think sometimes people ask

and this comes up, you know, I teach a class in 318I have for

the, you know, last however long.

It's been a while and everybody inevitably comes to this point,

whether they're taking a discipleship course at Anchor

Faith Church or whether they just come and sit and hear the

word of God. Everybody comes to this point

and ask the question, how do I find my purpose?

How do I find out what my purpose is?

Because you can't read the Bible and see that God orchestrates

your life and says before you were born, I knew you before you

were born, I set you apart to do something special.

Then all of a sudden you come to this place and realize God

probably had a plan that I'm supposed to be doing.

It's an important question. So when we ask this question, we

have to first say God corporately.

What are you doing in me? Am I operating in my dominion?

How do we have dominion? Well, we have dominion because

we hear the Word of God and then we believe and act on the word

of God, and we just do that in general.

That's our general purpose. Nobody's free of that.

God's not calling you to a special thing, and you were born

to do a special thing without him.

But if God is the author of our purpose, that means our purpose

can only be found in Him. Look at Ephesians 1/4.

It says as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the

world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

He chose us in Him. This isn't some kind of

predestination thing. This is God, the heart of God,

dealing with you personally. He chose you, not just as a

person, not all by yourself, but He chose you in who you will

never ever truly find yourself outside of Him.

He chose you in him. See, This is why we have an

advantage. This is why I'm so thankful for

Anchor Faith Church, for the training that we have for the

pastoral staff that we have for the instruction, because the

world desperately needs this. The whole Pharmaceutical

industry would probably go bankrupt if if people just began

to realize I was born for a purpose.

They found the author of the purpose.

They said I submit to your lordship and then just did it.

You know, we've had many friends that have had had children.

You know what I would say at Anchor Faith Church, postpartum

depression just doesn't seem to be an epidemic here because I

think we have a bunch of Mamas that know their purpose in the

Kingdom and that baby fits into their purpose and they keep

moving on with purpose. Same thing.

We've got men that show up and we in in, in the what the work

that we do at Anchor Faith Church in marriages is is

phenomenal. The work that we do in men's

lives through the 318 discipleship through

relationships and men knowing each other.

It's phenomenal because what it does is broken men show up

because we pray a men Lord send broken men to this church, send

broken families, send broken marriages in because they can't

get fixed anywhere else. And then all of a sudden the

word of God begins to seep in and penetrate these men's hearts

and these families hearts. And then God begins to put

things together because only in him can true, true purpose be

found. The purpose of marriage can only

really be found in him. If you don't know why God

designed marriage and you don't understand your role in the

marriage, you find yourself at a Coldplay concert and you begin

to abuse your life and your family and you're abusing your

time and your energy and your resources and you're abusing

your dominion. My wife's shaking her head.

It's OK, but God has an individual purpose for each one

of us that fits into His corporate assignment for the

planet. If we look at Jeremiah 2911,

this begins to still speak to because for for for some reason,

whenever we start talking about your purpose, then you're

thinking, well, what if God asked what if?

What if I'm born to do something that I'm not doing right now?

See, I see I've, there's people that have said, well, I've built

this career. I've, I've, I've been at my job

for 20 years. I'm close to retirement.

But what, what if I ask God and then God tells me you were never

created to do that. Well, it's called courage.

It's called having the guts to step out and obey what God says,

no matter the cost. I, I remember sharing things

from my heart. I remember as a teenager, I

hated the, I hated hot weather. I still do.

And I grew up in Oklahoma and we had all Four Seasons and I, I

told my parents many times, like, you know what, someday I'm

going to move to Colorado because they have mountains and

snow and it's cold and like, I love it.

And then when God began to deal with me about purpose, I, my

purpose wasn't to do the family business.

It was to go into ministry. And he spoke that directly to my

heart. I know that.

But I had this thought that I had shared with some of my

friends, like what if God calls me like be a missionary to some

hot place? That would be horrible.

And then here I am. What?

How hot was it today? These last couple weeks have

been brutal and I was reminded of that.

Lord, you called me to a hot place.

I don't know if you did that on purpose, but in the end you have

to be willing to say, Lord, I want your lordship.

I want whatever you have for my life.

See, too many people have a big long list of things they don't

want to do for God and they're afraid to actually go to God and

ask the question. So when somebody really asks me,

oh, how do I find out my purpose?

The first thing that I want to say, and then I'll say right

here that I don't normally just say in person because it comes

off a little better from the platform, is you're going to

have to die to a lot of things. How do I find my purpose?

You get rid of a lot of other stuff that you're holding onto

because what if God is holding in his hands everything you ever

dreamed of and everything you ever wanted or needed and

reaches out to hand it to you, but your hands are so full of

your own selfish choices that you can't actually accept it.

And I think that's the place most people are in who are truly

discontented or frustrated or in a season of their life where

they're like, I don't, I just feel like I'm not doing what I

was, what I was created to do. And, you know, I don't know how

to find that. Well, maybe it's because you

just refused to let go of you because I'm here to tell you

right now, I was born for this. I was born for it.

As sure as my heart beats in my chest, I was born to be here at

Anchor Faith Church right now, tonight, there, there's no doubt

in my mind. There's no question.

There's no, there's no, there's no question marks zooming around

my head about what I'm assigned to.

I am called to be here with you right now.

I'm in the right place at the right time for my destiny.

And that confidence comes from me first asking a question when

I was 18 years old in my Jeep in a parking lot on 6th St. in

Tulsa, OK. When I said, God, I'm tired of

doing my own thing. I just want what you want from

me. What do you want me to do?

It wasn't a deep theological prayer.

It didn't rhyme. I didn't say you are great, you

are good. What's the destiny for this

dude? Like I didn't do that.

I just genuinely opened up and I realized in that moment I didn't

really know what was happening. But for the rest of my life,

there are markers that have been through my life and calling that

have pointed me towards where I am right now.

That moment is truly the moment I made him Lord of my life.

I prayed a prayer when I was a little kid.

I grew up in church. I grew up on a Pew.

I slept under my dad's desk at the church as he was an

associate pastor at the church I grew up, slept under his desk

every Sunday. But that didn't get me any

closer to my destiny. That moment in my Jeep when I

said I'm done with me, I only want you for the rest of my life

was a true heart commitment that was made in here.

I didn't purchase a billboard on the side of the road.

I didn't go call all of my friends and let them know.

In the end, it was something that happened deep within me and

in from that point on, he became Lord.

And it's important because when somebody's like, well, you know,

how do I know my purpose? Well, it has to start with you

knowing God's will, God's overall purpose.

Then the next point would have to be Lordship, because why

would he tell you what you were born for if he knows you've not

committed to actually enter into him?

See, he Jeremiah 2911 says, for I know the plans that I have for

you. Who has the plans for me?

Who else has the plans for me? At one time in my life, other

people had plans for me. My family had plans, my friends

had plans. Some of the mentors in my life

had plans for me, gave me advice, thought what I should

do. But in the end, God has the

plans. Why would I listen to anybody

else? In the end, He's the one who's

declared that for me and they're good plans.

It's not for me to suffer and just be hot all the time.

I know that I said that. But in the end, I love the life

that I have here. I met my wife here.

I've had my 4 awesome kids here. I have so many relationships and

when people start complaining about how hard it is to make

friends in your 30s or in your 40s or 50s, it's hard to have

friends. I don't know what they're

talking about. God has called me to a place

that I have such deep, rich relationships.

I could not ask for anything better.

I could not go anywhere else and find better than what God's

given me in the assignment that I said yes to.

So the plans he asked for me, they're good, they're for good,

They're not so that I would just suffer, no.

Has there been suffering along the way?

Sure. But guess what?

He's been with me in it. If I could give you another

bullet point whenever God calls you to something, your purpose

does not promise comfort, but it is promised it a comforter your

your personal assignment. When you begin to hear that from

on the inside and you receive that from God, comfort for your

flesh goes out the door, but he sends you a comforter for the

inside. So even when it's difficult on

the outside, he's there with you.

See, He says I'll never leave you or forsake you, but he's

talking to those in covenant with him that have submitted to

his lordship. And that should be noted because

a lot of times people think, well, if I just believe in God,

he's with me, He'll never leave me or forsake me.

Even Satan believes in God. He believes he exists.

So believing he exists isn't what qualifies you.

It's Romans 828 those he causes all things to work together for

good for those that love him and those that are called according

to his purpose. Whose purpose?

Your purpose? Not your purpose, not Chris's

purpose. He doesn't work everything

together for good just for Chris's purpose.

He works everything together for good for those that are called

according to his purposes. And I know that we're kind of

like saying your purpose. I'm not actually telling you

here's what your purpose is, which I think some people are on

the edge of their seat wondering.

He's going to tell me my purpose.

I don't want to forecast too far in advance, but I'm not going to

do that tonight. I'm not going to tell you what

your purpose is. You know, Mr. Eric's sitting

over here on the front row and you know what's not going to

happen? And I'm just, this may be

disappointing to you, but not tonight, not when another guest

minister comes, not when a prophet of God shows up.

They're not going to come and say you were born to do such and

such. It's not how that happens.

It's on the inside. See, your personal assignment,

your purpose, is so sacred, so intimate, that God has to speak

it on the inside of you first. And I'll tell you why.

Because at some point you'll begin to operate in your purpose

and adversity will come because the enemy doesn't want you doing

it. Difficult times will come.

Even though you have peace and joy and a comforter available on

the inside of you, difficulty still shows up and you're going

to point to the person that called you.

So God doesn't send his prophets to come tell you your individual

purpose. Because then when it gets hard,

you'll be, well, that man of God prayed over me and he said this.

Then you're going to call him up, say, hey, jerk, you said

that I would do this purpose and it's really hard and it hurts.

And they've that's not how he works.

In fact, whenever I felt like God had called me to St.

Augustine, FL, I called Pastor Earl at the time I was like,

hey, I want to, you know, I feel like God's telling me to move to

Florida. You know what I wanted to hear?

We'd love to have you come on down.

And he didn't say that that was disappointing at the time, but

I'm so thankful for his God-given wisdom and his answer

that he gave. He said, well, you better hear

from God because when it gets tough, you got to remember He's

the one that called you, not me. You know what?

Over the last 20 years, it's gotten tough.

There's been times that I've said, Lord, Are you sure?

Are you sure You know what he said every time?

Yes. Stay the course.

You know where he says that same place that he called me?

It's deep. It's deep inside of me.

You know, often times this shows up even in pop culture things.

I'm going to give a Disney reference.

Just bear with me. But there's sometimes that

things echo in your heart that you watch because you realize

this is just kind of an allegory of something that God was doing

in in me or in in his ultimate plan.

And there's this movie, Moana. Has he ever seen Moana?

I'm not, you know, putting my state for approval.

Like you should go see it. I'm just saying I've seen it.

And there's this moment where she's trying to find her

destiny. And she says this statement that

in the movie theater, I sat there and I had this tear come

down and my daughter's like, what's wrong with you?

This is like a girls movie. But she's saying that her, her

destiny was calling to her. And she, she says this line, she

sings and says, but the call isn't out there at all.

It's inside me. And it's just I find God, man.

I find him wherever I'm at. But he sat there and he was

like, yeah, it's not out there. You're not gonna go find the

call out there. You're not gonna go find your

peace out there. You're not gonna go find your

comfort with your friends. It's inside right here.

So if you're writing another thing down, if you want to know

your purpose, you better get back good at prayer.

You better get good at hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and

obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit and letting him speak to

your heart, because that's the only place he's going to reveal

it first. No, I'm not saying that somebody

can't come down here and be praying and say, I see you in

the future and you're, you're doing this thing.

But you know what that is? That's them confirming something

that's already on the inside. Because if they say, I see you

doing this because people have prayed over me before.

I've been here a long time. And sometimes we get this idea

in our heads. And I'm not saying this is any

of you, but it is. And it's, it's that a guest

minister will come and they start going, Lord, Oh my God,

Oh, they come over. I just see right now.

And then people in their chairs are like, I hope he hope he

comes over here. What's he going to say to me?

What if he comes over? Come on, come on, come here.

And you're like, you're not doing it outside, but on the

inside you're like, please come over here.

Please come over here and tell me what it is.

And even if they come over to you and say, I see you doing

this thing, you better have it on the inside first.

There's been times when somebody's prayed over me and

they've confirmed something I already knew was deep inside.

There's all been other times that somebody's come in that we

were at some other conference or some other place and somebody

spoken something to me and I thought that was that made no

sense to me. That wasn't for me.

That was over here, but in this house, I'm not craving some word

from some prophet or somebody to come over and lay hands on me to

get something started in my life.

It's really just to confirm what God's already done on the

inside. Because if I'm, if I look at

markers along my path, I was, you know, really kind of moved a

couple weeks ago when I started thinking, where did, when did I

get called to ministry? When did that even really

happen? And I realized it was at a kids

camp and they were playing a song.

Some of you may know this, some may not, but it was sung by

Darlene. Check it was called the Potter's

hands and I remember I mean it's like God can zoom me into that

moment and I and and I'm standing there, I'm down there

on my knees. I'm worshiping We're at a kids

camp. They were just playing ACD.

It wasn't live worship. And the song says take me, mold

me, use me, film me and I remember as a child I wasn't

crying. I probably look like a rude

little kid, like I was probably, you know, scratching and

touching my friends and, and, and, you know, whatever.

But in the end, as a child, I was, you know, probably Titus

his age. And I'm sitting down there and I

remember God spoke in here instead.

I've called you, I've set you apart.

And I knew that meant ministry. God spoke to me in a way that I

knew what that meant on the inside.

And I remember that moment. So I went back and I listened

that song and I just sat there and thought, God, thank you.

It's dear to me. I mean, in my whole 38 years of

living, that moment resounds the God.

God called me then. And then I can think of another

time there was a a, a, a minister that came into the

children's. He, he was a clown.

It was literally he had makeup on.

Listen, the 90s were wild. Most kids ministry people were

clowns. Like I don't know why, but this

guy came in and he was a Holy Ghost clown.

I guess because he had, he had a word, his name was Whiskers.

Somebody's now listening to some podcasts.

I don't remember Whiskers, but this guy would go do children's

ministry and he had puppet skits and he'd do, he would do, you

know, Bible memory verses and things.

And it was a great time. But as a little child, you know,

under probably around the age of 10, I remember he looked down,

he goes, is there anybody in here named Josh?

Which that wasn't fair because there were eight of us.

OK, most popular baby named 1987, but he goes is anybody in

your name, Josh and the kid in front of me was a good friend of

mine. His name was also Josh.

He raised his hand. He pointed directly at him and I

was sitting in the chair behind him.

He goes I feel strongly by the Lord God has called you to

ministry. And I remember sitting there

going think he missed me. And that was the genuine thought

that I had. I think he I don't think that

was for him and I took that moment to heart.

He pointed through him, the other Josh and that guy come to

find out years later, I just found out like 3 or 4 years ago,

he just came back to the Lord, which I'm thankful for, but he

ran, didn't have ministry in his heart, did his own life for a

while now. Remember, there were moments on

the inside that God started planting seeds even from

childhood of what I was created to do.

Now, I'd like to say that I just stuck with that forever.

As a child went, I'm called a ministry and walked around like

a robot and I was like told everybody I was, but I was

trying to figure it all out as a teenager, like anybody else was

trying to find out what does God have?

But I realized through this, and again, if you're going to write

something down, I realized that God's purpose for you is never

him dropping a title on you, but it's Him enrolling you on a path

towards your purpose. See, too often I think

everybody's like, I want to know my purpose, God, what's my

purpose? And they'll want him to say,

you'll be a dentist and you go, OK, you will be a missionary.

If you say God, I want to know my purpose.

And he'll say, you know what? You should put in an application

at Treasure Harbor Preschool. God, I don't think you hear me.

Like they say, I said, what's my purpose?

And he says, maybe you should put in an application at the

preschool. It's kind of like when

somebody's like, God, I need, I need finance.

Lord bless me with finance. He's like, do you remember how

you talked to your wife? God, I was specific in my

question. I want you to be specific back.

But God always knows the root of what you need to get you where

you need to go. If you can't be obedient to his

spirit and his voice and whatever he's saying, then he's

not going to give you the specifics that you're actually

asking for Now. He says clearly if you seek you

will find if you knock the door will be answered.

He also says if anyone lacks wisdom, let Him ask.

However, we have to ask according to His will and we

have to ask Him the question that goes in line with His

purpose. Because the journey for me to

find my assignment, it was God speaking to me on the inside,

but it was also me obeying the still small things in every

given season. Every God-given assignment

begins in the heart, but God calls each one of us by name

into his greater purpose. So God's personal purpose for

you is to fit into his corporate mission.

So his corporate mission comes first.

So another thing that I've heard people say, I was like, oh, you

know, you know what God's called me to do.

I know what he's called me to do.

And it doesn't involve people. I'm called to be a veterinarian.

You know, I just have this heart and passion for animals.

And, you know, I just, you know, I don't deal with people.

Well, who do you think is going to pay you to deal with the

animal? We don't have the whole naked in

the garden thing anymore with the animals that went away

because of sin. Now we got to deal with people.

So I can promise you this. I can't tell you Brian, your,

your, your, your purpose and the reason you were born is this

specific thing. But what I can tell you is that

specifically your purpose is for people.

Every God-given personal assignment will affect the

corporate assignment of his Kingdom.

Every single call that God will put in your heart.

If you're saying, well, mine doesn't involve people, go back

and ask again, you're hearing something wrong.

Well, I'm not good with people. Listen, you weren't good with

righteousness when you were born.

You weren't good with not sinning and being selfish when

you were born. So I would hope to think that

once you get in the Kingdom, you'll get better at what God's

called you to be. Well, my personality, God

redeemed your personality. Well, you know I've been hurt.

He came to heal the hurts you don't know I've been through.

God does, and He's here to fix that so you can operate your

purpose. So maybe you don't know your

purpose because you won't forgive what's in your past.

Maybe. I know we're a little bit all

over the place, but this is good.

It didn't go the way that I thought, but I genuinely believe

we need to hear this. I mean, there's, there's too

many relationships I have. There's too many people that God

has called into Anchor Faith Church that haven't haven't

heard all the stuff that some of you have that have been here for

1015 years. I remember the first time I sat

in the service and they read Jeremiah 1/5 and read Jeremiah

2911 and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

God thought of me before I ever showed up.

God thought of me. Even if my parents had neglected

me, you know who still thought of me?

No, they didn't. But again, there's people that

show up. They're like, I had terrible

parents. They go, you don't know what my

life was like growing up. I'm like, I know that you were

held back from the one who loved you and planned for you.

Again, any story that's told or any any tale that that we read

or book, that fiction book that we see or movies that we watch

that resonates in us is really because somewhere Eden is still

creeping in there and calling out to your heart.

There's nobody watching the Tangled movie that doesn't

identify that woman being the devil.

She's rough. You know what?

She held that royal child back from her true loving parents

that wanted her and lied to her so that she wouldn't find them

until one day she saw the light. But why does that story resonate

with you? I got a bunch of children under

12. What do you want from me?

But why do these stories resonate with Don't act like

you're so holy you walk around. You only watch Chosen, you're

reading books, you're watching you're you're with your kids.

You got Bluey on. And you know that Bluey dad's a

good dad and you want to be a good dad.

Like you stop acting like you're so sacred at home.

You got Disney Plus, half of you.

But when you watch that movie, you realize that's the story of

humanity. That the enemy has come in and

stole you out of your royal birthright, your right to rule

and dominate the planet, and told you your daddy didn't love

you and that you all alone and that you can't go anywhere.

But all of a sudden, whenever you get the revelation or the

light that shows up in your heart, you realize my father's a

king that wanted me to reign with him.

And those things call and pull on your heart.

But then all of a sudden you don't know where really to find

it in scripture. And you're ignorant that you've

got an individual assignment like that.

I'm telling you, I've said in services just like this one

where my heart literally was burning inside of me because I

knew what was being said was true.

I just didn't know how. How do I fit into that until I

began to make Him first Lord of my life and then do the next

thing, which is John 15. Look at John 15.

This is Jesus speaking. And it's important to note Jesus

is the Word in this same, in this same book in John 11, it

says in the beginning was the Word.

The Word was with God. The Word and God are the same.

Then in verse 14 the Word became flesh.

That's Jesus. So he says I am, which should be

noted. The Word is saying I am the vine

and my Father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and

every branch that bears fruit He prunes it so it may bear more

fruit. You are already clean because of

the Word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in me. Who's saying this?

So who is Jesus? So he says, Abide in me.

Let the Word abide in the Word, and let the Word abide in you.

And as a branch cannot bear any fruit of itself unless it abides

in the vine, so neither can you. Unless you abide in the Word.

You will never enter your individual purpose.

You will never even have a hint going into this purpose until

you have established in His Lordship that I'm abiding in His

word. His principles, His precepts,

they, they dictate what I think, say, and do.

He says you abide in the Word, the word will abide in you.

And that's when you can actually be productive in your

assignment. Because when we go back to

Doctor Miles Monroe and his other quotes, the final quote

that he has in the four quotes is he says the greatest failure

in life is to be successful in the wrong assignment.

You can have all the world's success, but if you don't know

why you were born, you'll use your dominion to succeed in

something that abuses your life. You were designed to abide in

him. So this next verse, verse 5 says

I am the vine and you are the branches.

I love how Jesus has to get so specific and really break it

down for us. He's like metaphor.

He's speaking in metaphor and all of a sudden he says listen,

listen, listen, listen. I'm the vine, you're the branch.

He who abides in me and I in Him, He bears much fruit, for

apart from me you can do nothing.

So the only fruitfulness, the only true purpose that can show

up in your life is if you're abiding in Him.

I know I didn't give you like, you know, the phenomenal job

that Pastor Mike does was saying points 1234.

But I'm going to, I'm going to break it down for you and give

you some point #1 to enter into your purpose.

You got to have. He's got to be Lord #2 you've

got to abide. You've got to abide in His word.

You've got to let His word richly dwell within you.

You've got to every day do what David did say Your principles,

Your precepts, Your commands. I cherish them.

They're like water to my soul. They're like breath in my lungs.

Your word is everything to me. Until that moment happens, Don't

go to prayer and ask Him What's my ultimate assignment?

What is my title going to be one day when I enter into Your

purpose for me? Stop wasting time and

frustrating yourself. You were designed to abide in

Him. Psalm chapter 37, Psalm 3723

Psalms 37 · chapter mention

says the steps, the steps of a man are established by the Lord,

and he delights in his way. There's another verse, I believe

it's Psalm 119105. I don't know if he has this, but

I'll give him time because all through Scripture we can also

see that God's not about giving you just a moment.

The only moment you get is salvation.

Everything else is a process and a journey.

Everything else, everything about your purpose, everything

about your assignment, everything about season after

season will be a journey and a process for you.

The moment you get is whenever he takes out that old Stony

heart and that old spirit man, let's it die, be buried, and

then puts a brand new spirit inside of you.

That's a that happens in a moment at salvation, but the

rest of your life will be you walking with God through the

process. He says your word is a lamp to

my what feet and a light unto my path.

So why am I going to God asking what's at the end of the road?

I'm telling you right now you can't handle what's at the end

of the road right now, today, August 6th, 2025, you can't

handle what's at the end of your Rd.

If God dropped it right now and told you what it was, you'd pass

out or you would do what Moses did.

So let's look at let's, let's, let's paraphrase.

If we go to Exodus, we're going to paraphrase what happened with

Moses and Exodus, OK, He shows up.

He was born. I mean, he was set apart,

consecrated for a purpose to deliver Israel.

We know this from his birth. His mother saw him as like this

is a beautiful child, not meaning like he's a good looking

baby. We don't know.

He may have looked a little bit like an alien.

You know, he's born what sometimes babies, you know, they

look a little rough for a few days.

But she looked at him and knew, saw his purpose.

Then his purpose was so potent that all of a sudden the Pharaoh

comes up and wants to kill every other child to make sure he

wipes this one out. But he's protected, has divine

protection. Then he shows up and is raised

in the the household of Pharaoh. He's raised as a Prince in this

place. It's phenomenal story.

I love it. It's one of the greatest stories

ever told and it's real and it's history.

And God wrote it. The same God that wrote your

story, wrote that story. The same God that knew you

before you were born, knew Moses, and still chose you to

live right Now think of that. Every Bible story you've ever

read, every historical account of something powerful that's

happened. The same God that saw David in

the field with sheep, saw you working in the children's

ministry that night that the guest minister was there.

Same God. When I say I was born for this,

you understand, I, I don't wish I was born at some other time.

God saw all of eternity. He's the author and finisher of

the beginning and the end. He saw all of it and said, in

this time, I want Joshua Clay to be on the planet because there's

something that needs to happen through him and he only he can

accomplish it. And that same God is not a he's

not a, what is it respecter of persons, which means he also saw

Efron. He also saw Dustin and he said I

want you born at the same time. People wishing their lives were

different when in the end you want I just want my life to be

in God. But Moses was had this special

destiny. All of a sudden he goes out and

we see we can Fast forward through his story and it would

show up whenever he sees this burning Bush and he has what

everybody is really kind of wishing they had where the God

audibly tells them here's what you're going to do.

The voice of God is telling him you're going to deliver my

people. And Moses looks at him and goes,

OK, I hear you. It's a big task when forgetting

you were born for this, but OK, He goes, what?

Who do I say? Sent me the fire Bush guy.

God says no, you tell him I am. Boom, powerful moment.

We got theological everything from this point on.

He says I am. It's a powerful moment.

He's like, OK, OK, OK, what if he doesn't believe me?

God says, OK, put your hand in your jacket, pull it out.

Incurable disease that's got to do something puts it back.

He's healed. Moses is like, I don't know, is

that enough? OK, God's like, take the stick,

throw it on the ground, it becomes a living snake.

It has bones and blood, venom, whatever.

And then he picks it back up and it becomes a stick again.

Miracle. Moses is like, OK, what?

So, so you want me to do this and ask God multiple questions

and God answers every question about his purpose.

When God finally said I'm called you to do this, he's like, OK

and answers every question. Then Moses does the forbidden

thing. Then Moses says, you know what?

Send somebody else. And you know at that moment it

says the anger of the Lord burned against him.

God was not angry and walking through the process of his

destiny. God was not angry with him when

he said, I said, I've got questions, what should I do?

Where should I go? How do I speak?

How should I handle this? God was with him the whole time,

gave him miracles and power, but all of a sudden when he said I

don't want to do it, pick somebody else, God said no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not an option.

You're either in or you're out. He's like, I don't talk.

Well, God's like, obviously I've been here the whole time.

Sure, I've got your brother. He sent his brother to help him.

So when all of us are having this moment with God and God

speak into our hearts, understand God has called you to

do something only you can do. You've got to find what that

thing is. But once He tells you, you can't

shy away and go, whoa, that seems too big for just me, who

am I? Don't do that.

That's why we're going to be LED like a size of Psalm, whatever

that was. Psalm 10109, verse 5, 119105

Kevin, come on, help me out. It's a lamp into your feet a lot

into your path. The way He's leading us in this

new covenant is through His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us

on the path of our destiny. So don't try to leapfrog down

the path. Don't try to jump to the end and

find out what's at the end. See some of y'all read books

that way. Some of y'all open up a book and

you listen, great story and you're like man, I can't handle

the pressure of what's happened to these characters.

Let me read the end and just see how it turns out so I can go

back. You don't get to do that with

your life. You don't get to read.

The end at the very, very end says that God shows up and we're

redeemed. We've been delivered by the

blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony.

Then there's a new heaven and a new earth.

So we know it's a good ending, but it doesn't say individually

what happens along the way. You're walking through that with

God and it just so happens, like Pastor Earl had mentioned on

Sunday, we've got the Holy Ghost that comes along and he's our

spirit of truth. What I love about the Holy

Spirit is that Jesus didn't say, I'm introducing you to this guy.

He's the spirit of doctrine. He's coming and he will just

talk to you about doctrine and theology only.

He's the spirit of truth, which means he's going to reveal the

doctrine and theology and truth of God's Word.

But also he can come along and help guide and direct you in the

truth of why you're here. But the truth of why you're here

will always line up with the corporate purpose of God, His

Word. The Holy Ghost isn't going to

give you again some special little assignment that no one

else has ever had because it doesn't have anything to do with

God. No, your assignment is special

and individual for you to be in God's big picture.

And I have to reiterate that because sometimes we get

ourselves on an island and we think, oh, it's just me and God.

It's never you and God. It's never just you and God.

Because if it's you and God, God's never just with you.

He's a corporate God. He's always with his church.

He's always with the nations that he's established.

God is. He's never just said, you know

what, I'm going to leave all this stuff behind.

You and I are going to go off and be together.

He ain't all open with you, but people do this in their own

personal prayer time. They're like, oh, you know God

and they, they act like it's just them too.

Listen, he's with you, He's for you.

If you love him, you've got a call according to his purpose.

But in the end, God loves his church more than just you as an

individual. See, because we get this weird

thing in our minds that all of a sudden if I start to fail and I

stand and I act selfishly, God's love for me is so strong that

He, he'll be OK with it because of our personal relationship.

When his ultimate relationship is with His word and His mission

and His purpose, which is to re establish the Kingdom on this

planet and to also come back for a bribe.

That's without spot or wrinkle. He's not changed his mind about

that. He will not change his mind

about that. So he won't change that rule for

your personal mistakes. There's provision for your

mistakes that you can go confess them in first John 19 and it

says He's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you as

long as you admit there was wrongdoing.

But this has to be said because too often we start thinking

about what's my purpose? It's just me and God.

It's not just you and God. Your purpose is with others.

Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 tells us the next step that obviously

Matthew 6:33

if if we're wanting to walk in our individual purpose, we want

to find that so we can be part of God's grand purpose, then we

have to have him Lord of our lives.

He's got to be Lord. We also have to abide in his

word. But then from there we're going

to do what Jesus said. He said just continue to seek

the Kingdom. He doesn't say seek finance.

He doesn't say seek, you know, making sure your family is fed

and taken care of. He doesn't say make sure that

you seek a comfortable life for your American dream.

Now he says you pursue the Kingdom.

I'll take care of everything else that should be taken care

of. Jesus gives this whole

illustration about there's birds in the in the sky and God cares

for those birds. He gave them a purpose.

I've never seen a bird die of anxiety.

I've never walked by a dead bird on the street.

We were just downtown a month ago and we're walking down and

my son goes, Dad, look, he's holding a dead bird.

Son put it down. It's gross.

He's like, well, but you know what?

That bird didn't die because of stress.

See, God said if I take care of the birds in such a way that

every day they wake up and they have everything that they need,

don't I care about you more than I care about a bird?

In Matthew 6, the verse 25 on he says, what about the lilies of

the field, the flowers that are in the field, I adorn them, I

give them clothes to wear that they look even better than

Solomon ever looked in his fine silk.

But how much more do I care about you than flowers?

So when we're trying to find God, what do you want me to do?

And all of a sudden God shows up and starts to lead us in a way

that makes us uncomfortable or leads us in a way that is away

from our our own flesh being satisfied.

We have, we go, Oh, well, I don't know, maybe I should stay

at this job a little longer just to see how it works out.

You know what, what if, what if God calls me into a season where

I don't, I don't have a job. And I'm not saying everybody go

quit your jobs tonight. If you call, call me, call the

church office tomorrow and go Josh preached and he said quit

your job. That is not what I'm saying, but

I am saying have enough guts within you, enough grit.

Like Pastor Apostle Josh Adams said, you know, a couple Sundays

ago, have some grit about you that you say whatever God calls

me to do, I'll do that thing no matter what it costs me.

No matter if it seems crazy to my family, no matter if it seems

crazy to my friends. In the end, God is obligated to

take care of you. I think that's where a lot of

men really miss it is because they think my job is to provide

for my family when that's not your job.

Your job is to put yourself in a position that you're pursuing

the Kingdom in such a way that God is obligated to provide for

your family. It doesn't always look like just

a paycheck. So some people say, well, my

paycheck has to be such and such.

And you know, I, I've got to make sure I make this much a

month. Maybe God's telling you, hey,

I'm not capping your salary with the place I'm assigning you.

Maybe they'll pay you this much and I'll take care of the rest.

This is why sometimes people shy away from things because I

remember there there was a season whenever my wife Danny,

she's a she's a nationally certified interpreter and back

15-6, no 18 years ago, that was big money.

Now we didn't know how to budget.

We hadn't really met with Pastor Mike and Angie and then help us

out with our lives. So we ate out all the time and

wasted all of our money. But at the time she was making

quite a bit and she said, you know what God's called me Pastor

Earl launched, he's launching a preschool at the church.

God's called me to work at the preschool.

It's going to be a pay cut. And I was like, praise God,

let's do it. We're gutsy.

Let's do whatever God says. So the first week she goes,

there's they said it's only part time.

I'm like, part, I know how part time works.

No problem. So she said, all right, I start

next week Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:00.

I said, OK, no, that's a fragment of time.

That's not part time. I thought part time went up to

30 hours. I was like, oh, an hour.

She goes, yeah, there's a meeting we're having about

launching it and they'll pay me for that hour.

OK. The next week, praise God, it

only started increasing. She's like 3 hours.

Our budget had to had to manifest.

There was a time in US pursuing God where I was like, you're

making quite a bit of money. We're comfortable.

All of a sudden she said, God called me to work here, let's do

this. And it just seemed like, well,

the cash isn't there. But you know what?

We never, ever went without a meal.

We never missed a payment on anything.

Now, did it come just through a paycheck that we had?

No, we had a church body that we were part of that We weren't

telling everybody. We weren't going around saying,

hey, you know, we're struggling. Oh my gosh, you know, Danny just

took this job. We weren't sharing all that.

We were just believing God, saying God, you told us to do

this. We had complete joy in it.

There was never like a frustrating moment.

We had total joy like God, you got to take care of us.

We laughed. In fact, when she got the one

hour notification. I'm like, praise God.

You heard from him, right? All right, let's move on.

But you know what people sewed into US.

People blessed us. We didn't have to go and make a

GoFundMe for our monthly bills. That's tacky.

Don't do that. You know what that tells me?

Tell me you don't have friends without telling me you don't

have friends that you got to go out on the Internet and say I

need to make my mortgage payment.

No, we sewed into the church. We sewed into other people's

lives. It was it was an easy give and

take. In fact, I think with the times

that people have the most frustration in following God is

because they haven't sewed enough in anyway.

They've not sowed into other people's relationships.

So then they feel really weird to receive a blessing.

We can receive a blessing. You know why?

Because I know I've been a blessing.

I've got seed in the ground. So when something grows up and I

can harvest it, it makes sense. But it's it is awkward whenever

you're like, I don't, I don't tithe.

I don't give to the church. I don't treat anybody to meals.

I don't have any friends here. But now I don't know what to do

with my, with, you know, how do I pay my bills?

This wasn't necessarily in my notes, but this is good.

This is real life stuff. Have relationships.

Did God listen, you're in this room tonight.

Did God call you to Anchor Faith Church?

Raise your hand. There's a reason that you're

here and that reason is God said, I've got a local body

church that I want you to go get connected to that's going to

train you up. It's got all the five fold

ministry gifts in it, all of them.

They're going to equip you for your purpose.

So a couple things that I want to define real fast words that

that I want to define. One is ministry.

It says the fivefold ministry gifts.

Pastor just preached A phenomenal sermon series.

You can go on YouTube or go on Spotify and it's called the

fivefold. I said that fivefold effect, and

it outlines what the fivefold ministry gifts are for, but

they're there to equip you for your ministry.

Ministry sounds very churchy in Bible.

All that means is you're serving your work of service.

Because I'm going to tell you, if your purpose involves people,

your purpose every time will involve serving those people,

you pouring out your life and giving of your life, your time,

your energy, your sources. That is your ministry, whether

it's fivefold ministry that you can be called to, or it could be

business, or it could be that you're called to work with

children, or you could be called to, you know, go evangelize the

way. It doesn't matter.

But whatever that calling is, that's for you to serve your

gift to the world somehow. And it's always goes beyond your

own house. Because there's a lot of times

that I find people that are frustrated and they're like,

well, you know, my, my personal mission field is my home.

No, no, no, that's your first mission field.

Do not get that confused. Your house is not your total

assignment. That's where your assignment

begins. Like, well, God's just called me

to raise my babies. OK, but one day they'll be

raised and you'll find yourself back here asking the question,

what's my purpose? So you can't find your purpose

in your own house. Only it starts in your house.

But your purpose always goes beyond your own household.

See people sitting around praying, God bless me so that I

can pay my own bills. We're thinking too small.

If we've got business people that are only making money for

their own house and their own business, we're thinking too

small. That's not God's purpose.

That's you trying to take care of yourself.

God's purpose always involves other people.

It always involves you serving. So anytime you hear the word

ministry, it just means serving. When we say a ministry of Anchor

Faith Church, it means a way that Anchor Faith Church is

serving. Pastor Angie is our community

pastor. So whenever we have these

outreaches, we're like, oh, we've got a ministry going here.

We've got ministry happening at West Augustine.

We've got ministry. That means we're, it's a way for

us to serve. So when we have a sign up that

shows up on the on the screen, it says like W Augustine's

coming up, that's ministry. That's what day do you want to

minister? You're like, well, all I do is I

plug in the iPad and hit play on the music.

You're serving those people. That is a work of ministry, and

the fivefold gifts are there to equip you to find out what is

your service for the world and how to do it effectively.

Amen. I'll wrap up with these twelve

thoughts. In the end, we need to make sure

that He's Lord of our life. If we want to enter into our

purpose, He's got to be Lord of our life.

We've got to abide in His word. It has to be what we live and

breathe every day. Then from there, we have to

recognize it's gonna be me, God and the community, me, God and

the corporate anointing and the corporate purpose.

God's called you to anchor faith church, to participate in the

body. He's not called you just to come

hear what's being said and leave and dip out.

You can do that in Spotify and you can do that at any church.

But if God's called you here, he's called you to develop

relationships with people, He's called you to sow into the

ministry. There's, I can't tell.

I tell you how many times people say, oh, well, you know, I'm

struggling financially. I'm like, but are you, you're

personally struggling. So are you doing God's corporate

plan for finance, which is tithe and offering?

See, if you're not doing his corporate purpose for your

finances, then your personal purpose and finances is going to

struggle. So are you coming?

Are you giving of your time, your energy, your resources to

the local house and investing in relationships and investing

yourself in the vision? That's why God would call you

here. Well, I don't, you know, I'm not

good at making friends. If somebody gives you a chance,

don't be weird. I can't give you any more

practical, real advice than that.

If somebody reaches out to you and says, hey, good morning, how

are you doing? Don't go blessed and highly

favored of the most high brother, you're not getting

invited to lunch. It's not happening.

You're like, man, nobody want nobody wants to talk to me.

Do you stand in the back like this?

Is that what you're doing? Think, look at yourself.

But God's called you to not just have an individual purpose

that's just you and him. And in the end, I just want to

hammer that away. If you're going to take anything

away tonight, just know you have an individual assignment.

If you're asking a question, how do I find my purpose?

First, just take the first steps.

Let the word guide your first steps into saying where do you

want me in this season? What do you want me to do?

Where do you want me to serve? Who do you want me to spend time

with? Last thing I'll say is this we

need to stay in the course that we are set with the Lord.

Don't waver from it. Second Timothy chapter 4, we'll

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

look at this. This will be our last verse

tonight doesn't end with people coming at museum like if you

want to know your purpose, come down.

It's not how that happens. I'm going to lay hands on you

and pray the pray the purpose into you.

What you do is you go home and you have the conversation with

God. I said, what have you assigned

me in this season? And this goes for any age group.

You're never too old to find your purpose.

Moses LED them into the promised land.

He's like 80 years old, but also you're never too young.

God's speaking to me as a child. That's why I'm thankful for

Anchor Vey Church and we've got our children's ministry.

You know what? My son tonight came to me and

said you're preaching tonight. Papa said that you're preaching

tonight and I want can I sit in service?

I said, no, he's like, we don't want to hear my dad preach.

And I said, let me, let me tell you something.

Pastor Bradley is anointed to speak a word into your life at

your age right now that I don't want you to miss out on because

I know what I'm going to say and I know the audience.

I have it. But I also know the anointing

that's on his life to come and preach you a word that's going

to touch your heart where you're at right now.

That's why we have children's ministry.

It's not babysitting because they're annoying.

Pastor Earl's even said 1000 times, I don't care if your

baby's screaming in the back, that's fine.

That's not what we don't have that because we don't want

screaming babies in the room. We have it because we know

there's an individual message that can Pierce to the heart of

a child. Just like when I was a kid and

I'm sitting there worshipping to ACD track getting called in the

ministry. That can happen to your child in

that class. Same thing with my daughter

Charlie. Pastors Chase and Alyssa are

phenomenal youth pastors. I don't know if y'all ever get

out much but you can't go to another church and find better,

not for your kids. Has God called you to Anchor

Faith Church Then everything that you, your children, your

spouse, your relationships, everything you need can be found

here. But the last thing that I'll

leave you with is this. Whatever your individual purpose

is, once God reveals it, you'll realize everything in your heart

that you were born to do can be done at Anchor Faith Church.

It's a stupid thought from the enemy to think well, what God's

called me to do, I've got to go somewhere else.

Whatever's in your heart, God can utilize it here, but you

just got to make sure is he Lord, you got to make sure am I

submitted to the the word in my life?

Am I abiding in divine Am I abiding in the word and in this

course that he sent me on it. The apostle Paul's telling

Timothy, he says, listen, I'm already poured out as a drink

offering. This guy has done his purpose,

he said. The time of my departure has

come. I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.

This is a man who is at the end of his Rd. that has poured out

his whole life and he said what I did was I kept the course.

Go back to that last verse, he said.

I finished the course. He didn't say I arrived at my

final assignment, so I just stepped into being an apostle.

That's not what he said. He said I finished the course.

This whole thing was a journey. It was a path.

It was a course that he was on and he finished strong.

So I would venture to say many of you really have things in

your heart. You know God's tugging on you.

He's pulling on you whether you're in a service like this

and it's your heart's burning within you, or whether you're

reading your Bible and God's echoing things, or whether

you're watching some Disney movie and all of a sudden

something's pulling on you on the inside.

God's trying to get to you any way He can, but you have to

solidify in yourself. You have to commit.

He's Lord. I don't do my own thing.

The life that I now live, I live unto Him only wherever it takes

me. Stay the course.