Pierced By A Choice - with Pastor Brandon Hicks

Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

from St. Augustine, FL.

Now enjoy this message. Well, I am Brandon Hicks, Pastor

Brandon. I am the youth pastor here at

Anchor Bay Church. Everybody giving up for the

youth presidents do. Pastor Earl has been preaching

on pride. Is everybody been enjoying

these? Yep, one of the one of the

scriptures he gave him to get a little recap for him and it was

Second Peter chapter 3, verse three.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Say Second Peter chapter 3 verse 3.

2 Peter 3:3

NLT says. Most importantly, I want to

remind you. That in the last days scoffers

will come mocking the truth and following their desires.

This is not God's intent for his church, and I don't believe that

this is a building full of scoffers.

I'm encouraged to know that I am ministering to people who are

hungry, who desire the word of God, who want to rightly divide

the word of God, who. And I believe that you're going

to be drawing on me because, you know, whenever a person is

ministering, they can. Feel whether or not someone is

drawing on them or whether or not they're just waiting for

lunch time. Just check, you know?

But I believe that this house is a house that's ready.

We have a desire and a hunger for the Word, and we want to see

what God's going to have, because there's no scoffers in

here. Amen.

Say I am not a scoffer. Amen.

I believe that you said correctly.

So tonight, this morning I I said tonight because it usually

I'm ministering on a Wednesday night.

So it is this morning still. I think it is morning still

pierced by a choice say pierced by a choice.

Now the Lord gave me this title before Pastor Earl asked me to

minister on a specific subject. Because at first he said where

other staff mean. He said pastor random, I'll have

you do this Sunday. I'm not getting me.

I'm like, OK, cool. You know, I played it cool.

You know, I was like, awesome. Yeah, no problem, pastor.

I'm thinking awesome. So what am I going to tell him?

You know? So then you start asking the

Lord, you know? And the last thing I want to

give you is something that I've already preached in the current

because they could be easy. I've been doing this for like 13

years. So like I was a children's

pastor. It was a youth pastor.

So I'm like, it was easy. I have like.

Encyclopedia is full of just notes of messages.

I'm like, I could just pull something, but that's not what

God had for you this morning because the word is alive and

living and active and sharper than any two edges sword.

So I know that God has a fresh rainbow word for you today, and

if you'll have ears to hear, then you're going to receive

something. You're going to leave here today

better than you came in, right? Because that's the idea.

When we come to church, we want to leave better than we were

when we got here. We shouldn't be frowning after

serving our lunch. When we eat lunch, our waiters

and waitress were like, oh, I'm so sorry.

Are you having a bad day? You know what?

Seriously. We're children of God.

We have joy with the joy of the Lord.

We should get a ha ha ha up in our spirit everywhere we go

because we left the House of the Lord.

Amen. So Pierce by choice we have your

bibles turn to revelation. I saw pastor.

This is serious. Y'all laughing.

I'm serious. I saw pastor.

Earlier this once I was like. What?

He started his message in Revelation.

I'm like. I'm afraid to even read that.

Book like it's kind of no, no, no.

We're going to start. In your bibles in Revelation

Revelation 5:12

chapter 5, verse 12, say chapter 5, verse 12, the new King James

Version says it this way, saying with a loud voice Worthy is the

Lamb who is slain to receive power and riches and wisdom.

And strength and honor. And glory and blessing.

Because he was slain, He was worthy of honor, you understand?

Jesus had a choice. He had a choice, he said.

Do you not know that I could call down a legion of angels at

anytime and rescue me from this cross?

He didn't have to do that. He's not some suffering servant

saved by grace. You know that the that the we

all look, I'm just a suffering, you know, I'm just holding on.

You know, God's going to get me through this.

No, that is not the church that Jesus is the head of.

He's the head of a victorious church.

He's the head of a bold church. He's the head of a church that

knows who they are because they read the word.

So he was pierced by a choice. He had a choice.

He said I would not even came. Had not my father sent me so the

greatest thing he could do to? Honor, his father was do the

thing that his father called him to do by his shops.

We were healed. It's because of that.

Piercing that he chose, it would have done.

We could have had no power without him shedding blood.

It's his blood that was shed, poured out for us, and he was

pierced by a choice. He had a choice to made.

He had a choice to make. The Strong's word for honor is

to esteem at the highest degree. So that word honor that you see

in Revelation means to esteem to the highest degree.

If you honor something, you hold it of utmost importance.

You are saying yes, this is what I choose.

We should have this hunger and esteem.

For the word of. God, it should be #1 on our

list. It's not something that we'll

get to if we're not too tired. It's not something that will do

on days that it doesn't affect my schedule.

No, it is something that we should have a high regard.

The first thing that wakes me up in the morning, though, it

should be the last thing I'm thinking about in the morning.

Throughout my day. I should be saying, how am I

honoring you today, Father? Because I'm showing everyone

that I'm a believer. Because the number one thing

that world the world calls unbelievable is a church that

does that, hears something true and does something different.

That's what unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable.

Someone said that I have no idea who it was.

It wasn't me. An unbelieving world calls that

absolutely unbelievable to see people that call themselves

Christians and go live church and they'll put their Jesus fish

sticker or their or their Jesus crosses on you know on the

window. But then they'll Hulk and flip

you the bird in traffic and acting all crazy and you know

like getting irate it to drive through because they can't get

your order right now see so we are believers.

This is not the nature of God. So this should not be who people

see when they see. That's a Christian.

Really. People should not be surprised

if if you're if you're people at your work, your associates at

your workplace found out you're a Christian, would they be

surprised? You don't have to answer.

It's just it's a question for you to say you're right.

I don't really represent God while I'm at work, but this is

just personal. As a side note, Jesus is not a

fad. You know, living a life for

Christ is not a fad. It's not something we go

through. You know, humanity operates in

fads. For example, in the 70s,

sixties, 70s, there were bell bottoms.

That was a fad. You know, I don't know.

I wasn't around yet. I'm an 82 baby holler for all

the 80s babies in the house. So, so.

But that was a fad they all had. Well, bottoms, that was just a

thing Then they it faded out OK then and now my late 80s, early

90s, I had a mullet haircut. I remember I have my elementary

school pictures and I remember I rocked A mullet with the with

with real short hair on the side.

I had a spike haircut. So I had a mullet and a spike

haircut. I went so far in this fad.

Then I put a perm in my mullet because if you'll notice, I

don't have curly hair, but I wanted curly hair because when a

perm gets wet, you see the real curls, it activates the perm,

you know, and it's real curly. So I would just get out of

shower and wet my hair. And then me and Devin, my little

brother, I don't even know if he's here today, but you know,

me and my little brother here we were play and we were just, I

would be like, you know, I'm like, I'm pretending to be Van

Dam. And I'm like, he won this more

of the movies. He had this real curly hair.

And I'm like. Man, this is it.

But that was a fad. Now you see, now you see that

the 70s and 60s is coming back around.

It's still in a circle. It's enter, it's coming in.

But oh, I want what? Why would Why do we do these

things? That's the question.

Fads. I think a fads kind of short for

fading away. It'll come and it'll fade out.

The Kingdom of God is not a fad. The Kingdom of God is not going

to fade away. It was the same.

He's the same yesterday, today and forever.

So in the beginning, he was the Word.

Now he's the Word. And in the end, he'll be the

Word. And when heaven and earth passes

away, he'll still be the Word. A new heaven and new earth will

come down. But he's still the Word.

The Word will not change. You know, we're not going to get

a new copy of the Bible. That's completely different.

When the new heaven and the new earth comes down, it's the same.

And it will always remain. Amen.

Funny story before I really get into it.

That was my intro. Buddy of mine Matt he's in the

building this morning and you know he mean him we share some

similar things that we liked as hobbies and one of them is

talking and so so he he's like hey man he's like hey hey he's

like hey I said I heard uh heard you got today's you got a word

today I said yes. I said I've got something to say

to him. I said worst case scenario, I'm

just going to have you come up here and we'll just tell

everyone who we are and that's 45 minutes in itself because the

only. Person that likes to talk more

than me. It's Matt Hunt and everyone that

knows him is. He knows that one last story

that I'm really going to get into.

Last story, the first time I ever, the first time I ever

preached in front of Pastor Earl was in Nicaragua and his

Vladimir. Vladimir might be in here.

Vladimir, He's in the back. I see him.

He was probably there. I'm as a matter of fact, I know

he was there. First time I ever preached.

I was so nervous. Now you got to understand the

demographics. Sit down until I asked them or

told them You may be seated. I I'm in Nicaragua, there was at

least 80 to 100 men, OK. In this group, it was a men's

camp and they're all in there and they stood up to honor the

speaker, and they have such great honor in this country that

they would. They stood, So I'm up here and

I'm so nervous. You know, Pastor Marcus, he just

got done singing and then I'm getting up here and I'm like,

OK, I've got my nose. I'm so nervous.

Pastor Earl, sitting here, I'm in another country.

It's really my first time preaching.

And I'm like, I'm like, you know, I'm like, so I just, I

just launched into, I just started, I introduced myself and

I just started and they're still standing.

I didn't notice. I'm just.

No big deal. They're still standing.

So finally and I'm so and I'm and there's no microphone and

I'm in this loud building and it's just hot and there's a

metal roof and there's, you know, it's just so I'm

projecting my voice. So I'm like, really?

Yelling, I'm like, I'm like, you know, I because I knew I was

projecting my voice, you know? So then all sudden I see, I see.

Pastor. No, it was John.

It was his son Sean. Sean was on that trip.

So Sean, his oldest son, Sean, he walked over the back.

And Sean's doing this. I'm like, I must be talking too

loud. So I start monotoning my voice

down a little bit. I started, you know, I started

talking a little lower. So finally now there's an

interpreter. It may have been Ernie.

Yeah, there's an interpreter. I'm sure it probably was there.

Ernie was. He's interpreted for me because

they have no idea what I'm saying.

I mean, I'm Appalachian English. There's Appalachian English, and

then the, you know, there's Spanish.

So they have no idea what I'm saying.

He's interpreting. To the best of his ability.

And and finally Pastor Earl says have him sit down real loud and

now they have no idea what he said.

And then finally I was like you may be seated and then he

interprets you may be sitting and they all sit down.

I was like, so I was reminded of that account this morning

because I just wanted to get you guys kind of the eyes, little

icebreaker, because you know, the word of God is not heavy.

The word of God sets us free. I'm gonna.

I'm gonna step on some sacred cows.

But I. It's not something for you to

say. You know it shouldn't raw you up

or man. It should set you free and

should say OK, yes, I see that now.

I see how your your love has done that for me.

I can honor you by reading your word and doing your word,

because that's the greatest form of honor.

The greatest form of honor that Jesus could have done for his

father was to do everything he sent him to do.

He said he wouldn't have even. Had not God sent him?

Chapter 13, verse 13. In other words, Jesus wasn't

sitting up there saying, let me go, let me go, let me go, let me

go. Get murdered.

Killed, you know, Beard ripped out.

Let me, let me. Just let me know.

No. He was sent and he willingly

obeyed. And it was his greatest form of

honor, for his father was to obey that what the Lord asking

so. This is where the message

starts. Says whosoever despiseth the

Word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment

shall be rewarded. That Word despise means to

disrespect. Fear of the Lord is more of

obedience, so let's try it this way.

Whosoever despises or disrespects the Word, shall be

destroyed. But he that.

Has obedience to the commandments of God will be

rewarded? Now that's a different way of

reading it, because I know no one would ever say I I ain't

reading the Bible. I I despise that no one's ever

done this, even. Unbelievers have a have a

reverence for the word of God, you know, because they know that

it's sacred. They know that they know that

it's right. They don't want to submit and

crucify their flesh yet, but they know it's right.

The other day they know it's right.

My dad, my dad, all he raised me up.

He just he was a great dad, but not a spiritual father.

Father, because he wasn't born again.

He taught me how to do things naturally, but he could never

teach me how to do things spiritually.

But at the end of the day, he knew on Sunday mornings I would

try to go to him and that would be my way out.

Dad, let me stay home from church.

You know, I don't want moms making me go to church.

Didn't you know I shouldn't have to.

She shouldn't make me go to church.

Dad, come up. Tell her I'm not going to go.

You know she has to listen to you.

Your dad Now, son, you need to go to church with your mom, even

though he wasn't himself going. He knew that was right and

thankfully he was able to get in by the skin of his teeth.

You know, like he. Later, he passed away of cancer.

That he did not have to. He could have, he could have

received a word from God because there are other cancer people in

here. Randy somewhere.

Like he mentioned the Mayo Clinic during offering, Yeah,

there's two different sides of cancer.

There's a side that we just give into it and say, Oh my gosh,

it's cancer. It's uncurable.

Or there's a side where I'm going to believe God, and if I

die, I'm going to die believe. God, because it is not his will,

it is not his will for me to die and but my father never had

revelation of that so peace or come to his illness but at the

end of his Rd. He was able to confess with his

mouth, believe in his heart, become born again.

He was able to have water baptism, which we'll do here in

a little bit by sprinkling water, because he wasn't even

able to get out of bed at this point.

He's they sprinkle water on him and water baptized.

He got filled with a Holy Spirit.

He spoke in other tongues, I mean, but it wasn't a revelation

for him to change his life. It was just security of leaving

the planet. But that's not God's desire for

you. You don't have to get there.

That's his desire is never for you to die.

Ever. God's not putting a sickness on

you, teaching you a lesson He's not.

No. If you're sick, you need to

fight the good or fight of faith and come out of it.

Amen. All right, let's keep going.

Proverbs, Chapter 13, verse 13 in the Passion Translation says

Proverbs 13:13

despise the word, will you? Then you'll pay the price.

And it won't be pretty. But the one who honors the

Father's holy instructions will be rewarded.

The fear of the Lord is directly related to honor.

If you honor the word of God, then it'll produce life for you.

It can't produce anything else if you have a high.

Esteem and you honor the word of God as it was spoken and

written, then it cannot fail, he said.

My word will not return back to me empty or without power, but

it will accomplish everything that I sent it to accomplish.

So if you're wondering why God's word is not working for you,

then is a question of you. It's not a question of the word,

because if we fail to believe God at what he said, then we

will fail to have its outcome. My dad failed to believe the

power. I asked him one day.

I asked him one day. Randy actually bought me a plane

ticket to go up there. Because I wanted to.

I wanted to be able to be with him and kind of walk him through

this. Because I had gained such great

revelation of the healing power of God.

I knew this was easy, but I had to get his mind changed because

Jesus said repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent means to change your thinking.

So I knew I had to get his thinking change because he's so,

you know what little bit of church his mother did bring him

up in was Southern Baptist, which was.

Just being born again. That was it.

If we're born again, that's all that matters.

And every time we go to church, we're going to get born again.

Again. Because that's the Hellfire

brimstone preaching. Let me tell you today about a

man named Jesus and how he died on the cross and how he rose.

Come on, you'll ever been in one of these churches.

It's exciting. It's exciting, It's exciting,

but but it will not empower you to live the Kingdom on the

earth. It will only give you a good

night's sleep, knowing that if you die before you wake the

Lord, your soul, he will take. That's it.

That's all it'll do for you. And that's the level of

understanding of the word that my dad had.

So in the end, he was able to become born again.

And I believe now he is present with the Lord because to be

absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

I will see him again one day. Amen.

The reverence for the Lord means deep respect.

Obedience is a form of honor. If I am honoring if I deeply.

Respect the word of God. Then I'm going to obey the what

it says. I'm going to obey the word of

God because if I have honor for the word, then I'm going to obey

it. My son, who's honoring me by

obeying, he's taking notes. I said, son, I want you to sell

the front seat today. I want you to take notes and I

want to read your notes and I'm gonna compare him to my notes

and we'll see how well you did. Because I want to equip him to

be a note taker. Pastor Mike coins this phrase he

says on on the paper off the mind because it is impossible

for you to remember everything that said when you leave, so

become good note takers. You can take notes on your phone

if you have your notifications turned off because the devil

will distract you. Oh, Facebook post, oh, Instagram

post, oh, grocery list reminder, Oh, there's all types of

distractions. Take notes.

Become a good note taker so that you can go back and read over

your notes. Review your notes.

I've got notes from every service I've ever said in here

because it's just that important, because it's

everything that I say to you and everything that Pastor Earl says

from the platform is not in our notes.

So it's not like we're going to say, Oh yeah, you missed

something, I'll. E-mail you my notes.

He did this once. He sent me his notes, he said.

Here, I'm going to say I'm going to give you some notes.

It's OK. Cool.

It's just scripture references. I'm like, hey pastor, got your

scriptures, send me your notes. Those are my notes.

Great. It's awesome.

Appreciate it. I'm going to read the Bible too.

So James chapter one, verse 22. Say James chapter one, verse 22.

I make my teenagers do this because if you hear me say it,

but then you yourself say it, there's twice, twice to get a

chance that you're going to retain it.

Because it's not about me. I've got it here.

I need you to get it. Amen James chapter one verse 22

says don't just listen to the word of truth and not respond to

it for that is the essence of self deception.

Notice it doesn't say the devil's deceiving you.

That's the essence of self deception.

So always let his word become like poetry, written and

fulfilled by your life. Response is an action.

If you're doing the word of God, you're it's a response.

That's an action. OK.

I can't say that I'm going to do God's word.

If you don't see me doing God's word, you understand because.

And then it says that God's word will come to pass.

He desires that it comes to pass through.

So he said my word will come to pass.

OK. And it's and it will.

Someone's going to do it. He desires it to come to pass

through you. He wants his word to come to

pass through. He wants to see his blessings

come and fulfilled being fulfilled in your life.

He wants to see his provision be provided to you in your life.

He wants to see health in your life.

He wants his word to come to pass through you.

He wants your testimony to be that what will cause people to

overcome their situation, because someone may be going

through something that you already went through.

So why don't you let them hear how God was faithful for you and

help encourage him? My gosh, He says he's no

respecter of persons. So if he'll do it for this

little apple actually got from Kentucky, then he's going to do

it for me. You understand what I'm saying?

He, he, He loves to perform His Word.

He loves it. It is a great honor for him to

see you applying your faith in His Word and having it coming to

pass in your life. Amen.

It says your your life should be flowing like a beautiful poem.

Now listen, I don't read poetry newsflash.

But when I think of poetry, I think of something that just.

Smoothly rolls off the lips when you're reading it.

It just flows. It's just a good smooth flow.

And that's how God desires your life to be.

Your life should be just a good smooth flow.

And now we live in a fallen world and there is an enemy.

He's the devil and he does not want you to succeed, just to let

you know he wants you to fail. But it is up to you because

Jesus already conquered him. Jesus conquered death hell in

the grave. He conquered.

He's gotten the keys to Hades. OK, so he's already fought the

fight. It is up to you to fight the

good fight of faith that Paul talks about and have what Jesus

did come to pass in your life. Because last time I checked, I

am seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So if Jesus could overcome something that says that he was

tempted on all accounts. Which means well, now I'm

different. Pastor, this is not.

You know, they didn't have cell phones back when Jesus was

there. So how do we know he could have

overcome? No, he was tempted on all

accounts. That's what the word says.

So if he was able to overcome all temptation, then we can

overcome all temptation. That's it.

There's no temptation that will ever come to you.

That the blood of Jesus cannot overpower it is up to.

You say me. It's up to you to gain

revelation through the reading of the word and say, OK, I'm

going to apply this word to my life.

That is my job. That's my job.

Period. That is up to me.

If I'm if God's Word is failing for me, then it is my fault.

It is me failing to believe it and failing to apply that to

apply it. I I mean if you're a first time

guess, you cannot experience aggravate church in one service.

You have to come at least go back at least five times.

So just know I'm very passionate when it comes to word and when

it comes to obeying the word, you have to be equally as a

passionate. About it.

Because it doesn't matter what you know.

It says that you deceive yourself if you're doing.

If you're not doing the word you know, then you're deceiving

yourself right now. The sad thing about deception?

Is that people that are deceived don't know they're deceived.

Well, good news. I've got an answer.

Read the Bible so you can realize that's me.

I'm deceived. I need to repent.

I need to change my thinking because there was, you know,

like I said, my grandmother was Southern Baptist.

Ain't no speaking in tongues at a Southern Baptist church.

Y'all OK? And ain't having that died out

with the apostles. They say, OK, let's talk.

But that's false. That's there's no scripture to

to to give the evidence of that. There is evidence of a spirit

filled, tongue talking believing church that is in the planet

today. We are a spirit filled

organization. The word of God is is the He's

the helper, He's my helper. He's the one that Jude verse 20

says praying the Holy Ghost building yourselves up in your

most holy faith. That's why I'm doing it.

And Jude's the 2nd to last book of the Bible.

So if it was supposed to be gone away with it and probably been

the second book of the Bible, not the first book.

But there's nothing from just as a revelation.

Everything that's in there is applicable for today, and it is

for you today. And if you'll receive it, you

can grow by and be empowered by it.

Amen. So I got four things that we're

going to focus on this morning. Say 4 things.

You need to write these down, Text them to yourself.

Remind yourself. We're going to talk about four

things. It's interesting when the Holy

Ghost talks to other people that don't really know that someone

else got it. Like Pastor Marcus this morning

he talked about maintaining, you know, during praise the war

should be talked about a maintenance.

There's a maintenance and a maintain.

That's one of the four points that you're going to get.

So it's super exciting to see that God has went before us and

before we're. Before I ever even took the

first note, he already had a plan and a purpose because I'm

led by his spirit. Amen.

So number one, say #1. It's purpose.

You don't have to repeat everything.

Only if I Only if I tell you to say it.

I get this a lot. I get this a lot.

My teenagers, they did it on purpose.

I don't think you guys did it on purpose, but they'll just keep

your family like you're done. You don't have to repeat me

anymore. Our lives should have purpose

for God's Kingdom and His church.

I'm gonna say it again. Our lives should have purpose.

And those that purpose should be for God's Kingdom and for His

church. This purpose drives us.

This purpose is what we wake up. And I know that God has a plan

for me. God needs me.

You understand what I'm saying? He needs me, I said underneath

the teaching one time for several years of my life.

And I would constantly hear the person from the platform saying,

God doesn't need you, you know? He's gonna and he that God

doesn't need you. He's no he's going to do it

anyway. God wants to do it through us.

You know He needs us, He said. The earth is given to man, the

heavens are the heavens of the Lord.

But the earth He's given to man, He's given it to us to maintain

it. He's given to us to be able to

speak His word in it, half faith in it, as our our God's word

through our mouth is just as powerful as God's Word coming

out of his mouth. Because when I say I am healed

by His stripes, that's the same power as when God said you are

healed by my stripes. That's it.

When I believe it, it's the same.

It doesn't. It's the same.

Amen. It says the same #2, say #2.

Function. Say function.

You're good. All right.

And we'll get this. We'll get this before lunch.

We'll get it. Function our lives.

It should have a function for God's Kingdom in His church.

Notice His Kingdom, His church. Our lives should have a

function. There is a part we can play.

We can do more than just here, we can do.

If something has a function, that means it does something #3.

Performance. Say performance.

Our lives should be performing in God's Kingdom.

In His church, our lives should be performing and #4 what Pastor

Marcus was all over is maintenance.

Our lives should maintain themselves in God's Kingdom and

in His church. There's enough, if we're reading

the word, praying in the Spirit, building ourselves up there is

enough to maintain us. We shouldn't have to, you know.

Oh, we're so we got no, there's enough.

God's word is enough. Same in #1 we said was purpose.

Let's talk about purpose. Our purpose should wake us up in

the morning. Your purpose.

When you wake up in the morning, it's like yes, yes.

He didn't return last night, so I'm going to God.

I got another day. He's got a purpose for me in

this planet and I'm going to perform it.

I'm going to do it. Our purpose should drive us

through the day. Listen, we should be.

We'll be going down the road. What am I going to get to do?

Where am I going? Listening to the Holy Spirit,

the one that's alive, the one that's in the planet, the third

person, we've got God the Father, God the Son, God the

Holy Spirit. God is in heaven, on a throne.

Jesus is it, as at his right hand.

So he's in heaven. And now the Holy Spirit, that's

the third person, dwells on the inside of us who believe it and

received it by faith. Now he can let me know what the

will of my Heavenly Father is. And now if I'm in heavenly

places in Christ Jesus, then this the holy I need that.

We need the Holy Spirit. Say we need the Holy Spirit.

He's our helper, our purpose. Our purpose should give us

peace. When we lay down to fall asleep

at night. My wife says that she hates it

because I fall asleep before she does.

You have ears to hears. Probably because that's the

word. That's why she hates it.

She doesn't hate it that her husband gets such good, restful

sleep before she does. It's because if she doesn't race

me to sleep, she's gonna have a hard time.

She's gonna have to turn like no rain noises up or turn the A/C

on or something. You know?

I went on a men stripped with Duncan Daly one time.

I don't know if we're Duncan that but Duncan Yeah, I was.

He's in the best sound, but they have black shirts on, so I have

no idea where he's at. I see a head.

So Duncan Daly was my roommate. And Duncan was like, he's super

nice as hey now, Pastor, he said.

Now I'm gonna let you know he's like, you know, I tend to snore,

especially when you know when I'm tired.

I said, you know what, That's no problem.

I snore too, especially when I'm tired.

So when he said I snore, I mean, I didn't realize I was think,

wow, he does snore. So, so, and I'm sure he thought

the same thing about me, because, I mean, I have to sound

like I'm trying to suck my nose through my skull like when I'm

asleep anyway. Anyway, it was a race for us.

We would get in our room at night and we knew we had to get

up early, so we wanted to get as much sleep as possible.

But if he fell asleep before I did, it's going to be rough.

It's going to be rough for me to fall asleep, but if.

You know, so we would race. All right, all right, good

night. And we like, we wouldn't even

say, yeah, we wasn't talking. We didn't say nothing like, all

right, man, I gotta say no more. And we just like try to fall

asleep. Try to fall asleep because we

knew that we need. To get some rest.

So our purpose should give us peace at night.

We should. It should be easy for us to fall

asleep, and if you're wrought up about something that's causing

you to lose sleep, you got to give it to the Lord.

You got to say, Lord, I'm going to cast my care on you.

It's just your burden to carry, not mine.

I'm a believer. I'm a tiger.

I am a candidate for your blessings in my life.

I should not be having a hard time sleeping at night.

I don't need to medicate myself or take another pill to make

myself fall asleep. I don't even care to take

melatonin. Because that's something like a

natural sleep aid. Well, you know, honestly,

natural sleep aid is falling asleep.

To me, that's that's the most natural form of sleep aid

possible. I don't want to become so

dependent on a melatonin. Then I get somewhere.

I don't have melatonin, so I can't fall asleep anymore

because I've just naturally medicated myself.

No. The peace of God gives me rest.

The peace of God gives me hope. It lets me know, yes, I'm doing

your word. I'm doing your will.

Your blessings are for my life. I am a candidate to have your

Kingdom manifest in my life. Amen.

Second thing we said was function.

Say function. We must know our function in

God's Kingdom and in His shirt. We need to know what our

function is because there are things that we're good at.

There are things that we're good at, and God did this on purpose.

Listen, He is the beginning and the end.

He knows the end from the beginning.

He's Alpha Omega. He is all knowing, all seeing,

all the time. And he has a plan for you in his

church. So we need to know what our

function is. Then the number one person asked

about your function is God. You pray and you pray it out and

you find out God. What would you have me put my

hand do? What would you have me do?

How can I bring honor? Our function will bring honor to

God if if it's the right thing, because the most unsuccessful

thing to be is successful in the wrong assignment, you know,

because we can be successful in a lot of things.

But if it is not what God has called you to do, it's the wrong

thing. The rich young ruler Rich young

ruler was very successful, had a lot of wealth.

And he comes up to Jesus excited.

Super excited. Like, hey, I'm so excited.

I want to do what you're doing. I want to, I want to live for

you. Jesus said, well, there's one

thing you lack. It's like, what do you mean one

thing I lack, I've done. I've done everything I've lived

right my whole life. I've given to the poor.

I've done this, I've done this, I've done this.

I've checked all the boxes. Jesus, I'm ready.

Put me in. Jesus said fine.

So everything you own, give it to the poor and then follow me.

The Bible says that he left troubled because he had many

possessions, so he was deceived by thinking all the things that

have been you know that I've acquired.

Surely God's blessing is on my life.

Surely? If I'm able to have all this

stuff, surely God must be pleased with me.

The Bible says he went off troubled because he had many

possessions. You could have things.

We're not against you having things.

But you have to ask yourself, which has which?

Do you have things or do things have you?

Because there's the difference. Amen.

I'm not go camp out there. That just came up, came out, and

our function will always line up with our purpose.

Your function will always line up with your purpose.

I have a lot of tools. It's taken me years and years.

I'm an electrician by trade. You know, Paul built tents.

I'm an electrician. It's fine.

Well, I have a lot of tools. Each one of those tools.

My wife is. I've heard this for 20 years.

Seriously. You buy another tool, usually

comes up just like seriously, you buy another tool?

What, $47 for a level? Why did you need a $47 level?

Because it's a conduit bending level.

It has a 30 degree bubble. It has a 45 degree bubble.

It has a zero degree bubble. It is 4 bending condo and I

needed it, you know. Come on, all the men should be

like 1-2 three. Yes, because because you know

tools have purposes. Well, we also, we also are a

tool for God's Kingdom. We have a purpose.

We have a function that level that costs $47.

In my it was a torpedo level and I don't even think it's level

straight now. It was like it didn't.

It didn't last the test of time. Pray because I dropped it.

But anyway, it had a function and you have a function.

You know, I would have been ignorant of that function had I

not taken a chance to read. There's a 30 degree bubble on

it. I know that what that's for

because I know how. I know how to bend conduit, so I

know why that would be helpful. You have a function in God's

Kingdom and the only way you can find out how your your purpose

and your function can benefit God's Kingdom is to get in His

word and find yourself in the word.

Like Oh yeah, this is how God came through for this.

This is how a person that that had those tendencies was able to

be a blessing to God. This is Jesus. 12 itself.

This is why that This is why Jesus kept this guy around,

because, well, you know, I'm kind of good at things like

that. You understand what I'm saying?

You need to find out what your function is, how it can relate

to your purpose so that you can be all that God's called you to

be and advance the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom.

Always advancing. Always.

It's never looking back. It's always this.

Never pausing, never taking a break.

It's always advancing and He wants you to perform well in His

Kingdom. Amen.

And the number third, The third thing we said was performance.

Now how well we perform in His Kingdom and His church will tell

us how much honor we have for Him, I said.

How much? How I said.

How much we know or function? I said.

My wife hates my do that, she said.

Don't do that. I have the microphones.

This thing, our performance is measurable.

Your performance is measurable. Work on time, church on time,

serving on time, reading your day or your Bible reading plan

when it's due. Your These are areas that you

can measure your performance. How well am I doing for the

Kingdom of God? Do people constantly wait on me

to show up when I'm scheduled to serve somewhere?

Do do people this pastor have to?

Do I have to say on my daily question like are you reading

about when pastor asked me? Were you?

Reading about well, I'm a couple days behind.

Pastor, is this your? Usual response, or does it

happen every now and then? I'm not saying it won't happen

every now and then, because it will.

Life happens. But catch back up.

You need to see how you're performing.

A Bible reading plan helps you measure that because if it's

half empty and you know we're in December, like I'm not

performing very well, my dad, that my daily Bible reading plan

next year, I need to get this thing better.

Because at that point, if you're in December and it's halfway,

not field, just throw it away, start over.

You're not going to make, you're not going to make it up.

You're not going to shut down your life for the next three

weeks and read the Bible because that's what it would take.

Don't. Just don't focus on the past.

It's OK. That's all right.

I was. I was an OK Bible reader the

last year. I'm going to be a better Bible

reader this year. That's what you got to do.

You got to be, you know, you got to be encouraged.

Amen #4 we said was maintenance. There is a lot of value that we

have to put on maintenance. This is an easy subject for me

because I tend to be wired for maintenance.

I'm wired. That way I can see something

that needs fixed and the Lord will just give me a way to fix

it. And if if I can't fix it, he's

giving me people that can. You understand what I'm saying?

Like you, This is why we need the church.

It's why we need each other. We're never supposed to do this

on our own. We're supposed to do this

together. You know, when I if I get to a

plumbing issue, I'm like, hey Bill, bro, I need you.

I'm not going to tell his last name because all y'all be

calling him for plumber. He can give you your number, his

number, if he wants to. But we have to maintain our

daily seeking, His first, daily seeking first the Kingdom will

help us maintain. The reason it says seek first

the Kingdom and all of its righteousness is because that's

the number one thing we should be seeking.

The number one thing we should be thinking about when we wake

up, stumble through the house, turn the coffee pot on, but be

thinking about how I can maintain my life in Christ.

How can today be better than it was yesterday?

Because this is how advancing happens.

This is the point of advancing. You're always better.

You're going to be better tomorrow.

I'll be better tomorrow than I am today.

I tell my kids this all the time.

I'm going to be a better dad tomorrow than I was today.

I forgot we were supposed to go to the pool.

I forgot. I did say we're going to the

pool. But you know what?

Let's rain check. Let's do it.

I'm gonna be. I'm so sorry.

I'm gonna be a better dad tomorrow than I was today.

You know, there's things that it will say, you know.

We gotta be careful. We're not telling God to just

what he wants to hear. Yeah, God, I'm gonna do this.

Yeah, I'm gonna. Because that's what we we know

he wants to hear. We just say no.

This is my word. If your word is final, then my

words gonna be final. And that's the best way I can

make sure that God's playing and purposes come through in my life

to maintain it. Failure to lose focus on any of

these four things will hinder your ability to bring honor to

God. If you fail to take focus on any

of those four things we just mentioned, they were purpose,

function, performance, and maintenance.

We have to focus on all four of these things in order to

successfully live in God's Kingdom.

They all for flow like poetry. They all work together.

They all are just like whenever they're like a well oiled

machine. We have to honor God, focus God,

read the Bible. We have to read the Bible.

Because if we're not reading the Bible then we are going to have

a hard time having faith in it. You can't let you can't have.

You can't live a life in the Kingdom successfully on.

I've heard that before mentality you have to keep it in you.

You have to keep stirring yourself up, you know, I know

some of it, like when I read through like some of the numbers

and you know Deuteronomy, some of the this one, we got this

one, we got this one and these sons on these nations and I'm

like really? But I have to remind myself no

God. You chose to pin it in there,

and I know it's going to produce.

I know I'm going to be able to grow from it, so I'm going to

read through it. Don't read your Bible when

you're sleepy. Don't.

Especially if you're in some of the Old Testament stuff because

it's going to put you to sleep. It shouldn't.

We should. I mean, if we have to stand up

and read our read our Bible. You wanna read at night?

Stand up. Doing it.

He's like mom. What's that not on your head?

When I fell down last night because I was standing up, read

my Bible, I fell asleep. I'm kidding.

You should read the word every day.

Isaiah chapter 53, say. Isaiah chapter 53, verse five

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

says he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The Chast, the Chastening for our well-being fell upon him,

and by his scourging we are healed.

This is not just for salvation, This is for honor.

Jesus made a choice to be pierced.

He allowed them to Pierce his side because it was honoring his

Heavenly Father the highest. Form of honor is obedience to

His Word. It's the highest form of honor.

If you want to live your life and say truthfully that you

honor God, you need to be reading the Bible and doing what

it says. That's not bondage.

That's not rules. That's not law.

That's life. That's freedom.

Because the most freedom you'll ever have is knowing that you've

done everything God asks you to do.

That's what will get you a well done my good and faithful

servant. Enter in.

That's not the goal. I'm not trying to get to heaven

one day. The goal is to live heaven while

I'm here. The goal is to have everything

that God says I can have right now.

Because you know, that's a that's a that is a a deceiving

lie of religion that we're going to live for Jesus now, so when

we die, we get to heaven. Heaven is a byproduct of living

a life in the Kingdom. Heaven is awesome.

I'm not devaluing heaven, but that's not the main focus.

Jesus said OK, when you pray, pray this way.

Our fathers are in heaven. Your Kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

So when I'm praying, I'm not praying like Lord just take me

on into heaven because it's, you know, Lord, I pray that when I

get to heaven, you don't know I'm going to have heaven while

I'm living right now. That's what the Kingdom does.

The Kingdom brings religion and it takes religion out of the

equation and it makes it into life.

He's not about a religion, it's about a relationship.

Amen. God did not want you to be

successful in the religion called Christianity.

He wanted you to be successful with your relationship with him

in his Kingdom. That's the key.

That's the goal, John chapter 19, verse 34.

John 19:34

John say. John chapter 19, verse 34 says.

John 19:34

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with the spear, and

immediately blood and water came out.

This piercing was honor being manifested through obedience,

You understand? He allowed them to Pierce him,

you say? Well, he was nailed to a cross.

He had no choice. He had a choice.

At any moment he could have come down off that cross.

Make no mistake. Please don't buy the lie that it

was. He was sad that he was up there.

No, he was fulfilling his purpose in God's Kingdom of when

he was up there. That was a choice he made, he

told Pilot. He said, you know you don't.

You've only been given to me. You've only been given power

over me. What's been given by my Father

in heaven. In other words, make no mistake.

Your position of authority did not, did not allow you to put me

in chains. My Father in Heaven allowed you

to put me in chains. Amen.

You got to get this because we we have a years and decades of

religion that we have to get out of our mind.

Jesus constantly said repent, repent, repent.

The Kingdom of heaven is a hand. Repent.

Change your thinking, that word. Repent literally means change

your thing. So take away the old way of

thinking and put on my way of thinking.

Put on the Kingdom way of thinking.

You have to look the Bible through the lens of the Kingdom

of God. A living, breathing book.

It's a book that is a Rama book. It's a it is a book that was

breathed by God. It's full of life, and

everything that it produces is life.

If you want life, get in the word if you want.

Freedom, the Word, is the only place it's found.

I mean God Bless America and the NRA.

But the Word of God is the only place the the Word of God is the

only place they'll edit this out.

I'm sure the the Word of God is the only place.

The Word of God is the only place that true freedom can be

found. That's it.

There's no other place, Ephesians say Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4, verse 2422 through 24. We're gonna read a few here that

you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man

which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be

renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you.

Put on the Newman which was, which was created according to

God in true righteousness and holiness.

It's the only it's only this kind of lifestyle that brings

honor to God and His Kingdom. It is only this kind of living.

We have to put off that old person.

Well, I always do this well. I.

Well, my dad did this well. My grandmother.

It's just something we do in our family.

No, that's a lie. I'm a new man in Christ Jesus.

They said, behold, all things that were all were passed away

and all things are made new. So the minute I became in Christ

Jesus, I am brand new. From that point I started my

life in His Kingdom. Everything that was behind that

is irrelevant. It doesn't matter.

It's of little importance. Some things can be used as a

testimony, but not a place to camp at.

You understand? I'm not going to camp.

And the way I used to live, I'm gonna say no, thank God you

delivered me from the way I used to live.

I don't have to be that person anymore.

You know, I'm a I have freedom in Christ.

We're going to keep reading, but we're going to read this next

section, same chapter in the in the Passion translation.

So if he is chapter 4, we're going to read verses 25 through

Isaiah 4 · chapter mention

27. And the Passion says so.

Discard every form of dishonesty, dishonesty, and

lying so that you will be known as one who always speaks the

truth, for we all belong to one another.

But don't let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin.

Don't let anger control you or be fuel for revenge, Not for

even a day. Verse 27 Don't give the

slanderous accuser that is the devil an opportunity to

manipulate you. If you're honoring God, then you

will not be dishonest. If you're if you're honoring

God, you're not going to be dishonest.

If you live a life of honor, you you will live an honest life.

Look to the word. Look the word dishonest.

It's completely the opposite of honor.

Look at it. Dishonest.

Is it up there? Where's it at?

Yeah, Dishonesty. It's got the word honor mixed in

there. So if you're living dishonestly,

you cannot live honorably. You see that?

You cannot live both a dishonest life and a life that honors God.

You can't. It can't happen.

Colossians say. Colossians chapter 3, verses two

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

and four, two through 4, says yes.

Feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your

thoughts with heavenly realities and not with the distractions of

the natural realm. Your crucifixion with Christ has

severed the tide of this life, and now your true life is hidden

away in God, in Christ, verse four.

And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, who you

really are will also be revealed.

For you know for you are now one with him in his glory.

The choice Christ made to be pierced severed the tide of this

life, and we're in Christ. If Christ's flesh had to be

crucified, then so does ours. We cannot live successfully in

God's Kingdom without crucifying the flesh.

The flesh constantly sets its desires on itself.

The Spirit constantly sets its desires on others.

So if you. Live a life consumed with you.

You're going to miss what God wants to do through you and and

you're not going to be a blessing to His Kingdom.

Amen. Our choice to honor God will

keep our flesh pierced and our lives in Christ Jesus.

You know, I don't know where I can move on the cameras.

Our lives should honor God. Everything about our lives,

everything about our existence, should bring honor to Him.

If we're living our life according to His word, then

we're going to do that if we are obeying what we read.

Because remember, obedience is the key.

If you want to honor God, obey the word.

If you want to honor God, obey the you know.

Do the things you've been called to do.

If you don't know what they are, find it.

Get in the word. Honor is something that has been

fading out of society. When I was young, I remember my

grandparents would tell me, you know, give me certain

instructions. And now, looking back, I would

realize it's for honor. One of them, that's a little old

school. One of them was you're praying,

take your hat off. Now listen, God doesn't care if

your hat's on. OK?

But that was a form of honor, OK?

God does care if you honor him. So that was some honor.

She would say, you know, make sure you use your manners.

Make sure you say thank you. Make sure you say, you know

you're welcome. You know, do these, these are

kind things. And these are things that we

train our children because we want them to have honor It's all

form of honor but it's we're losing it as society goes on.

Now that's not know you know Jesus said be of good cheer.

I've overcome the world so it's not like well fine then we're

just going to be a dishonorable group.

No, the IT the buck stops here at choose that we choose to

honor God and we choose to bring those things that are God that

has godly character and make it come to pass.

Our phones sometimes can be tools of dishonor and it's

nothing. You know what?

Please. I told you I was I was gonna

kill some sacred cows today and as they were like cell phones

going to their pocket. No, I'm just kidding.

I have a phone. I leave a phone.

We all use their phones or phones are very useful tool.

OK, please don't get me wrong. They're a very useful tool.

However, they can also be very, very distracting.

So it's not popular because everyone has a phone.

Everyone has a phone. This is the society we live in.

When I was a kid, you know, in order to see certain things, I

had to like, go behind a counter when the cash register person

wasn't looking and tear a brown piece of paper off a magazine.

That's the only way I could ever be exposed to something like

that. Now it's free on every

electronic device. So we have to make a choice to

crucify our flesh. We have to make a choice to let

God empower it. He wants to empower you and

equip you, You know, don't be afraid.

Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna have to turn my phone

off. My kids got a phone with.

No. Teach them the right way.

You don't have to teach them, you know, Working in a bank.

Whenever you're working in a bank.

My motherinlaw. Who's right here?

Give a shout out Kim. Yep.

She's the mother. She's.

I call her the motherinlaw, because if you don't want to

have a Good Wife, is there going to be a motherinlaw?

There's just nothing you can do about it.

So we love so we so we love her. So we love her.

Well, so I brought her up. I brought her up because she

used to work in a bank. She used to do.

She's very well versed in banking and numbers, and

whenever you work at a bank, you are.

Taught money, not by counterfeit money.

You understand because there are counterfeit money that comes in

that looks really similar. The best thing they use to teach

you about counterfeit money is actual real money.

They don't bring Monopoly money in.

Now say now, Kim, if you ever get a person wanting to, you

know, put this $500 Monopoly money in there, we can't accept

this. It's not currency for us.

You know, they give her a real $100 bill, Kim.

This is the United States. These are the markings that you

have that lets us know it is not counterfeit, it is real.

So we they we have to find out the what is the truth?

Because the Word of God is the only real thing that exists in

the planet. It existed before the planet got

here. John won one in the beginning

was the Word. The Word was God.

The Word was with God. Then the Word became flesh.

So before the earth came was the word says heaven and earth shall

pass away, but my word lasts forever when the earth.

Passes away, the word will remain.

It is the only true factual evidence that we have of all

life in Christ. It's the only thing that leads

us to life. It's the only thing that leads

us to victory. It's the only thing that leads

us to healing. It's the only thing that leads

us to provision. It's the only thing that leads

us to walking in love with our brother.

Because look around you. There's a lot of different kinds

of people in here. Look around.

You have my permission. Look around at everybody.

Look around. There's a lot of different kinds

of people in here. Some.

Of them are easy to love, some of them are not.

I said, I know some of you. I'm like, I'm looking at

everyone. Some of you are not easy to

love. But God can give us.

God can give us the ability to love everyone.

Because it's been his love, His love has been shed abroad in my

heart. His love empowers me to love

each one of you with the God kind of love.

Amen. It's the Kingdom of God, and it

will not be shaken. It's the Kingdom of God that

will remain forever. You have to Pierce your flesh.

Every day when you wake up because you're not going to want

to read, you're not going to want to come to church, you're

not going to want to get up early and come to prayer.

Which is at 6:00 AM on Wednesday mornings, 6:00 AM.

This house is open every single week for prayer. 6:00 AM to 7:00

we pray for one hour, Jesus said.

You know, can you not pray for me for at least one hour?

So we at least do one hour. Now these this is vision

partners. If you're a vision partner Bank

of a church, this is the house is open for you to pray in now.

You should be praying other times also.

You can. You don't have to wait till

Wednesday morning to pray. You can pray often, Paul said.

I pray without ceasing, so he prayed all the time.

How can how can the Holy Spirit accurately say?

He said I pray in the Spirit more than you all.

Well, how do you know that? Because he lived a lifestyle of

praying in the Spirit. He lived a lifestyle of being

led by the Spirit that he was constantly dwelling on the

interest of his father. He was constantly seeking God

and everything he did. He was constantly about my

father's business. This is the church that he's

coming back for, the church that he's the head of, is the church

that seeks him and everything that they do.

The church that he's coming after is a church that has faith

in what he said. Applies what he said, does what

he said, maintains themselves in what he said, and they have

victory in everything that they do in Jesus name.

Thank you so much for listening to this message.

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