Anointed By Association

Let's wave our Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Say this together, say, heavenly Father, I'm glad to be here on Sunday night.

I'm glad there's church on Sunday night.

I didn't get enough this morning, so I'm going to get filled up tonight, filled up with the Word of God and with the Holy Ghost.

Holy Spirit, you put me over.

You're the greater one, you're the one that's wise.

You make me look so smart.

I'm learning how to yield to you more and more, and I have the victory in Jesus' name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Timothy seated.

Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Timothy, chapter 2.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

And while you're finding that, you can stop at 2 Corinthians 8.

We'll read that.

Secondly, 2 Timothy 1, chapter 2.

Paul writing faith, verse 1, thou, therefore, my son, you know it's good to have a spiritual father, and they, you know he, paul recognized Timothy as a son.

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast learned or has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

So you see this progression.

So you had the father, you had the son, and then you've got the son teaching others that are committed, and then the others are teaching.

So it flows from the father all the way through, which is why the church is weak and has been weak, because there's not many fathers, not many sons, not many sons want to commit to the father, even if the father is a father.

Some people are just, you know, preachers in name.

You know there's somebody.

You know they didn't have a father, nobody sent them, they just went, you know Alright.

And then 2 Corinthians 8.

And I would start reading with verse 1.

Moreover, brethren, we do you, to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that, in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality, or their, really, of its generosity.

Even though they had a hard time financially, they gave into this offering that he's talking about, for, to their power I bear record, yea and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us, in other words, begging to be part of this offering.

Here they are, you know, barely making it, and they wanted to get involved, praying us with much entreaty, in other words, begging us that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints the poor saints in Jerusalem is who this was for, and this they did not, as we hoped, but first gave their own selves unto the Lord and unto us, by the will of God.

One translation says they committed themselves to God and then to us, and so tonight I wanted to share a message that I considered a legacy.

What's a legacy message?

It's just something that's foundational.

That's one of the reasons why this church is here after 30 years, where others have, you know, disappeared, but anointed by association.

That's the title of the message.

Anointed by association.

I, like you, know divine associations.

That's what God gave me years ago.

I like a different way of looking at it.

It's the same meaning.

Brother Mark calls them supernatural relationships, but anointed, you know, divine associations.

But anointed, you know divine associations.

And he said to his son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, share your divine association and let them be progressive.

Let you know, because of our relationship now you take and you share that with things that you have heard of me among many witnesses.

It wasn't all just one-on-one.

Sometimes you're in a meeting.

I thank God for the one-on-one that I had with Brother Osteen.

For somebody like a Brother Osteen to have a one-on-one with a Brother Osteen, I mean that kind of blows your mind, because there's a man who had a worldwide ministry.

I tell the story we were just saved.

Less than a year we went to the World Convention of the Full Gospel Businessmen in Anaheim, california.

It was, you know, the year before we were busted broke.

I lived off my savings and then we got saved and I started tithithing and my finances turned around and I mean, you know we had enough money to take Gladys and me and our two kids and fly them to Anaheim and go to this meeting.

I mean it was like a massive amount of I mean for us to spend that kind of money.

We hadn't had a vacation in a long time, much less fly on an airplane and get there.

And you know our hotel we stayed at the convention hotel in on the park and then you had a shuttle over to the Anaheim Convention Center and you had Brother Copeland's preaching there and Pat Robertson preaching there and Paul Yonggi Cho was preaching there.

I mean got to hear all these people.

I didn't know very much about them, but I heard them, paul and Jan Crouch, in the lobby.

You know they looked kind of weird, but anyway, pink hair and he was real white, pale.

I mean he's whiter than white, I don't know, he bleached his skin or what.

Anyway, well, we're on the shuttle headed over there second morning.

Where's everybody from?

You know we went around the bus.

Well, we're from.

You know, one of the aisles of the sea, I think, fiji.

You know, there was world.

It really was a world convention.

People were there from everywhere.

And then I, when I said Houston, they all said, oh, john Osteen.

Now, I didn't know, I didn't know he was a worldwide world known figure.

I mean, he, he was a worldwide world-known figure.

I mean, he could just as easily have been speaking there, had before.

And but you know, I'm talking about now, anointed by association.

I'm talking about relationships, divine associations, associations and, uh, sarah and second Corinthians, the Macedonians committed themselves first to God and then to Paul.

See, this is what a lot of things don't a lot of that, that connection doesn't happen.

They commit to God and then they don't think about another person.

Oh well, I don't.

You know that's you're going to have to get committed to somebody, because you know God doesn't work that way.

He doesn't work directly with you.

Your blessing is going to lie between your.

You know where you, where you go up to the man of god that should be you.

You know your pastor.

Not enough people understand what the pastor's for.

The pastor is critical for your development.

The pastor's for A pastor's critical for your development.

The pastor is critical for you to ever get into your inheritance.

If you don't honor that and I'm not doing this to make you look at me, I'm just teaching you what I learned.

It doesn't bother me if you don't agree, because I'm not going to know unless you tell me and I've heard it before Besides that I've seen people's action.

Tell me that, so did Paul.

We'll get into that in a minute.

But then to Paul, what by the will of God?

See, it's not just, it's not.

God has a will in the matter.

You miss that connection.

You're liable to miss the main purpose.

You know summer of purpose is what they're teaching in the youth.

Well, it's a life of purpose and your whole purpose can get interrupted if you don't discover the will of God for the person that you're to relate to as pastor.

Amen.

There's a lot of silence in here, I don't mean it negatively so they committed themselves to God and and then to Paul.

By the will of God.

The word commit means to surrender, to yield up, to put in prison.

Now you know, I don't see that a lot either.

I see it, we have it.

That's one reason why we're here 30 years later, because we've got some folks that just went to prison rather than break fellowship with their pastor Stood behind me.

Through thick, through thin, through lies and through betrayals and everything else it always comes.

I mean, it's in the Bible, it's all in the Bible.

I'm not anything special, you know.

It doesn't happen to me just because I'm special.

It happens because it's just human nature.

It's flesh, it's flesh.

And so at Lakewood, when I started going there, I realized that Pastor Osteen was my pastor and I committed, I went in whole hog, I went in both feet.

First, I mean I didn't reserve and then, as God over a period of time, began to who are you talking to me?

Looks like you've had a hard fall.

No, I haven't.

I'm going to give you a hard fall.

If you keep buzzing my wrist Apple watches, it's hard to tell if they're a blessing or a curse.

Sometimes Interrupt my preaching, anyway, up my preaching, anyway.

Now, I just, you know when I began to start to get promoted, you know, I mean, you know, god promoted me and I began to be the emcee of the service.

I started opening services in prayer and then closing the services in prayer.

And let me tell you something, I committed.

I went to prison.

I didn't miss.

Oh well, we've got a family reunion, well, I won't be there.

If it's Sunday, Well, we're all getting together, well, I won't be there.

I mean, you know, you just, you decide, you just decide I'm going to commit all the way.

I'm not going to just be there when it's convenient to be there.

I'm going to be there because they're depending on me to do my part.

My part is not the most important part, but it's a part.

You know, try walking without your big toe.

It doesn't work very well.

You're not very well balanced.

You know, saw this ad on TV.

You know, lady was a heavy smoker.

She lost all her toes.

Horrible, I guess she could walk, but not without a whole lot of help.

You know, you know the little little thing like that.

You wouldn't think it would matter that much.

Listen, the body of christ is supernatural.

I mean every.

There's no big eyes and little use.

Every member is critical right now, for sure, all got to get in our position and our little fingers have got to be working and our you know toes have got to be working and our eyeballs have got to be working and everything's got to be working.

So, uh, the Macedonians were bond servants to Christ through Paul.

We're fond of saying Jesus is Lord, but then we don't really complete the Lordship, because God always works through a line of authority.

I've seen this misused.

Of course it sounds like a cult.

Well, a cult is a counterfeit of what is supposed to happen in church.

We've had people that came out of cults and come here and I start teaching along these lines and they go Ah, it sounds too familiar.

Well, it's a cult.

You were in a counterfeit.

This is the real thing, the way it's supposed to operate.

I lived it and I operate.

I lived it and I know the benefits of it.

There's a legacy, there's an anointing that came from my association with not even not only Brother Osteen, but a lot of others, different ones at different times, and I've you know, I don't know.

I'm talking about something that God gave me 40 years ago when I hadn't been saved very long.

I mean I got into this that I'm talking to right now and I mean I've lived it and I've always been very um, I won't say careful, I just respect divine associations.

If I have one, I'll do, I'll go to the end of the earth to keep my end of it.

But see, I can only do so much.

I can't do that for the other person.

So let's look here at 1 Samuel.

You know, before I get there, let me just you know it wasn't too long after I was promoted.

I guess it would probably be, I don't know, six, seven years after I'd gotten saved, and maybe I don't know.

I mean, just, I was still brother, I was standing.

Dodie took Gladys and I out to eat one day, right after I was started opening the services and prayer.

I mean it's too long a story to get into it.

But all of a sudden, out of this big old church 5,000 people on Sunday morning I'm standing up there opening the services and prayer.

That was in the old building, you know.

So they invited us out to eat at lunch on a Sunday, went to one of these fancy hotels in Galleria for brunch, you know, and glad it's not me.

We didn't know what to think.

We were nervous.

I mean, been around me, I mean I loved them and everything, but I'd never been that close to them on a one-on-one basis.

Here we are at a table with them and it's just the four of us and I'm just wondering okay, what is this going to be about?

What kind of questions are we going to have to?

I mean, I was nervous.

He said, john, why don't you tell me?

How in the world did you get to do what you're doing for us?

Because he didn't know.

I said the Holy Ghost.

He said ah, that was the right answer.

God had mercy on my soul.

So much wasn't much longer.

After that, I had the very first dream.

I remember ever having a prophetic dream and in the dream I was uh, you know, sometimes you just know things in a dream.

And I knew that I was on the houston ship channel on this, on this boat, on this, and it didn't have a super stray, it was flat, and in front of me I'm standing all the way in the rear of the boat and the engine is right under my feet vibrating, and I'm smelling the diesel.

And we're cutting through the water of the Houston ship channel.

How did I know?

Well, in the dream, I just knew it because I looked off and I saw the tank, batteries and the refineries.

And I've never been on the Houston ship Channel.

How did I know?

Well, in the dream, I just knew it because I looked off and I saw the tank, batteries and the refineries.

And I've never been on the Houston Ship Channel, you know most people haven't.

I've been over it but not in it.

And that's where I was on this boat and it looked like a vessel that would haul some sort of cargo under its hatches.

It had three hatches, it went from the back to the bow and I smelled the smell.

I smelled.

It was just kind of really interesting in the dream.

And in the dream I began to wonder what in the world?

What kind of engine?

Because I have an engineering background, mechanical engineer by education, and I've always been a motorhead and like motors and engines and stuff.

And so I reached down and picked up the hatch and looked at this big old engine.

Of course, the heat of the manifolds, you know just, and the smell and everything hits me in the face and the dream.

And I'm discovering this, discovering the power source of this big vessel that's carrying cargo.

And then I look up and now suddenly the dream changes and I'm switched and I hear the same sound.

But now, instead of on a boat, I'm in the cab of an 18-wheeler and I'm going down a two-lane highway and I'm looking over.

The hood Must have been a Peterbilt, it wasn't a freight liner with an old, flat nose on it, it had a hood on it and same engine sound, you know.

But now I'm not on the ship channel, I'm up on a two-lane road and I'm driving 60, 65 miles an hour and I'm coming up on another 18-wheeler and I have to slow down.

And then I wake up and a prophet friend of mine was spending the night with us and I know there was an anointed association because he had taught me about dreams the day before and he was teaching me about the prophetic one-on-one and here I had this dream.

It was from the Lord, so he helped me to interpret it.

He says I'd never really interpreted a dream.

He said well, you know, this is your ministry.

You know a vessel is is a picture of ministry.

Typically.

You know if it's a car or a boat, or you know a truck or a ship or an airplane or whatever.

It's a picture of ministry.

You're on the Houston Ship Channel.

You saw all those tank batteries.

You are carrying a blend of oil that was in the boat you were carrying.

It was carrying all the blends of oil that you've been exposed to at Lakewood.

You've got you know all these different ones Oral Roberts and of course, brother Osteen and you got you know all these different preachers Copeland and Brother Hagen, and all these different anointings coming in.

And you're sitting under those anointings and you're carrying a blend of anointings and you're looking at your engine hatch.

You're discovering God's power.

You're discovering the power of God that you're functioning in.

And I won't get into the second part of the dream because it was a futuristic part and I got that 10 years later that part of the dream came to pass.

I don't have time to get into that part of the dream.

It's not relevant to what we're talking about right tonight, but uh, that's, you know, that's those kinds of things.

So God began to school me.

God began to show me what a, what a strategic place I was in in that church and have the proper kind of attitude to serve this ministry.

And it's more than just brother Osteen, it's, it's, it's everybody that he brings in.

Are y'all with me now Talking about anointed by association?

Now let's look at 1 Samuel 22.

Everybody say anointed by association.

So your association is kind of important, isn't it?

I mean, you know, if it's just random, you know God doesn't do random.

God's never random.

God has always got a purpose.

God has always got a side.

God has always got a will.

He's got the good, acceptable and perfect will.

But then there's 30, 60, and a hundredfold too.

See, I mean, what do you want?

Do you want the minimal or do you want the maximum?

See, I want the maximum.

I'm just, my name is Jimmy.

I'll take all he gave me.

You know, that's it.

First, samuel 22.

David, he's running from Saul.

Saul's got it in for him.

Saul's, you know, saul's messed up, he's got demons.

Verse 1,.

David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Dullam, and when his brethren in all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

See why?

Because they're under pressure too.

You know, he wasn't just mad at, he didn't have just to have it in for David.

He's going to get to David through his family.

So they fled too, and everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain unto them and there were with him in this cave about 400 men.

It must have been a pretty big cave.

I hope it was a pretty big cave.

I mean, what a group.

Now he's been anointed already by the prophet Samuel as king over Israel at 18 years of old.

I mean, you go back and you find out.

You know chapter 16 where Samuel is sent over there because God had rejected.

He rejected Saul, but Saul's still technically the king.

He's alive, no one's killed him.

He's king, no matter whether God is in favor of him or not.

God wasn't.

God had rejected him and he said I want you to go, you know, and anoint the next king and pour that horn of oil.

And so you know, he poured a whole horn of oil over David.

But David didn't act like a king, he wasn't trying to move Saul out, he just trying to keep doing what he was doing.

And Saul, you know, didn't even know that he was anointed king.

Anyway, so he goes over there and he's got these 400 men, everybody in distress and debt and discontented Boy.

That's quite a quite a group.

What a church, what a kingdom.

Like herding cats.

So while he'd been busy fighting I mean he, you know he he defeated, you know the giant Goliath.

He'd avoided.

They'd avoided, you know, saw all he'd done, he'd been doing really well for himself While he'd been fighting.

They had been busy failing.

You talk about unsuccessful.

That's a group of unsuccessful men and it says he became a captain over them, a lord, a master, a ruler he became.

And so if he became that to them, then something must have happened to them toward him.

I mean you're talking about guys that are just not that kind of material.

I mean they're rebellious, they're failures, they don't listen to anybody and they're mad and they're discontented, they're in debt, they just, you know, they're just so.

Something happened along the way, not only from his standpoint, but from their standpoint at some point, what they committed themselves unto him.

Are y'all getting this now?

And then they got to partake of that anointing by their association.

They locked themselves in prison.

They, they absolutely bought into him, they submitted to him.

Are y'all getting this at all?

So about 20 years later, they're the mighty men.

They became mighty men, and it was more than 400 or 600 of them.

So they didn't start out mighty, they started out like they were.

But along the way they grew, along the way they took on the courage of David.

They took on.

They took on the courage of David.

They took on the characteristics of their Lord, of their master, of their ruler.

Are y'all getting this now?

Oh, I don't like that language.

It sounds like a cult.

Well, it wasn't a cult.

It's the way God operates.

God's up there.

You can't have.

You know, yes, he's Lord, but he's going to use a person, not just any person.

God has to get involved.

It's by the will of God, by the will of God, I committed myself to John Osteen.

Now we had all these other pastors not pastors, but you know, preachers.

Some of them are pastors, but I mean you know Charles Capps and RW Schambach, and I mean we had, oh, tl Osborne.

I mean we had men and women of God come through that church that I had listened to on the radio, I read their books, and here they are.

I mean it's just, it's amazing.

So these 400 became anointed by association.

So you know, 40 years ago God was showing me some of this and I'd just gotten involved at Lakewood and God promoted me and God started, you know, allowing me to understand what the gravity of my position and to have proper fear of the Lord, the proper respect.

And I just asked the Lord one day.

I said, well, what was it about David that made them want to commit to him like this?

I mean, this is kind of a stretch.

I mean coming from where they came from, kind of rebellious?

No, couldn't, they wouldn't listen to anybody, nobody.

You know they.

We don't know where they came from, but we just know that they were discontented in debt, Just kind of a basket case.

What did they see in David that compelled their commitment?

That's what I asked the Lord and he didn't take any length of time to answer.

He just, right there, said chapter 23.

So I flipped over there.

Just right there, he said chapter 23.

So I flipped over there.

2 Samuel 23.

2 Samuel, all right.

In verse 15, they're in battle with the Philistines.

By this time they're mighty men, by this time they're skilled warriors.

Other chapters you find out that they could sling a stone with either hand, left or right handed.

You find out one of them killed a lion in a field on a snowy day.

I mean, buddy, they were mean motor scooters.

You didn't mess with them.

Well, you didn't mess with David either, because he killed a lion and he killed a bear before he killed Goliath, so he wasn't exactly a pushover.

So in 2 Samuel 23, verse 15, and David longed and said oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.

2 Samuel 23:15

This is where they were, right there, and the Philistines were there and the three mighty men were.

See, he had mighty men, but then he had ranks.

I mean, you had three, and then you had three and you had another three.

It goes into all this detail.

So they weren't all equal.

There were some more skilled than others, some more anointed than others, and so the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines.

A host is not three or four, a host is a battalion.

Three mighty men broke through a battalion let's just use a battalion, a host and they drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David.

Here you go, david.

Your wish is our command.

That was their heart.

It didn't matter what it was, it didn't matter how dangerous, it didn't matter how hard it was.

All he had to do was say jump, and they wouldn't even ask how high.

And they brought that water back and they brought it to David.

Nevertheless, he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord.

And he said be it far from me, o Lord, that I should do this.

Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?

Therefore, he would not drink it.

And these things did these three mighty men.

So you know, as I began to meditate on this, I saw what God was talking about.

The reason that they were able to commit to him is number one.

He repented of speaking ill-advisedly.

He just got in the flesh man.

I wish.

I mean he didn't intend anybody to do anything.

I just wish I had.

I just wish I had another glass of that water that they had at Refurio Texas when I was growing up.

That was the best water I ever drank, right out of the tap, fooey on Ozarka water, fooey on all kind of bottled water, any kind of water that you get.

Refurio Texas had the best water you ever drank.

I mean you could just drink it by the gallon.

I can't explain why it tasted so good.

And then, gladys and I, we started our married life and we started life in Portland, texas, and that water tasted like the bay out there.

It tasted like that's the nastiest water you ever drank Back.

The bay out there.

It tasted like that's the nastiest water you ever drank Back.

Then we didn't buy water Are you kidding?

Buy water?

Nobody did that.

You drank water out of the faucet.

The only water in Refuro that wasn't any good was at the high school, at the stadium, and they had drilled a separate well and it wasn't a very deep well and it had sulfur in it.

So it tasted like rotten eggs and it didn't matter, because after practice you're so dried out they wouldn't give you, they wouldn't give you a drink of water during practice, two hours and a hundred degree heat, two a days, and we'd all line up at that old faucet and you just drink it until your belly would swell up and then you'd belch that rotten eggs and I mean it was nastiest water.

I, you know I couldn't wait to get home and I could drink the water there.

But I couldn't wait to get home, had to drink it right.

There Are y'all with me now.

So he, he repented of speaking inadvisably.

I know he, he was not.

He did not take them for granted.

In other words, he kept his flesh under.

I'm not about to drink this water.

He kept his flesh under.

I'm not about to drink this water.

I wouldn't dare drink this water.

This is their blood.

This water is equal to their blood.

That they risked their necks just to please me.

I can't do it.

I won't do it.

And he poured it out and worshiped God with it.

Whoo Glory to God.

And he was tender toward those under his authority, tender toward them.

He didn't act like some preachers I've seen and it's embarrassing and it's embarrassing.

I'm of an age now and I wouldn't mind telling somebody off if I ever caught them mistreating one of their family members or staff members in front of me.

I'm going to tell them because you know what.

I don't care what you like it or not, but I've been where.

I didn't have the standing and I witnessed it and it grieved me.

I never will forget a guy just in front of me just dressed down, this teenager.

He's about 19 years old and he asked the kid to wash his car for him and he did a beautiful job.

It's out on a dirt road.

You know it isn't going to last very long.

It's on a dirt road, okay.

How important is it for the going to last very long?

It's on a dirt road, okay, how.

How important is it for the car to be that clean?

It's going to be dirty immediately Soon, as you drive it down this 50 feet, it's going to be dirty right.

So it was clean, and he was going to get me in the car to take me to eat at the mess hall.

They had a cafeteria in the place and so I opened the door and there was a wad of paper that the carpets were vacuum perfect.

But he had had a wad of paper that he'd picked up.

He threw it in the well and he intended to come back and throw it away and he forgot it.

It was.

It was not dirty.

He just forgot to throw away this wadded up piece of white paper.

I mean, it didn't hurt anything and this guy just berated this kid in front of me.

Oh, I wanted to say something so bad.

I've never forgotten it, and that's been 30 years ago.

I never have.

I thought you know you're not going to be successful.

You're an idiot.

Who do you think you are talking to this kid like?

This doesn't even matter.

Why are you beating him up?

Say not David, no, david doesn't treat anybody like that.

He's tender toward those under His authority.

Let's look at 2 Timothy, again Talking about anointed by association.

Why is this a legacy message?

Because I credit this revelation with the success we have.

The anointing has to come from somewhere and it seldom comes direct from God on you, I mean.

It's always connected up into the body, and when you don't understand that one, then you're just a pretender.

I've seen plenty of those.

2 Timothy 4.

Are you getting anything out of this?

Praise God, praise God.

Now he's talking to Timothy, and let's just back up here to verse 7.

I have fought a good fight.

I have finished my course.

I've kept the faith.

Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that also, that love is appearing.

Do your diligence to come shortly unto me.

See, he's talking to Timothy.

Do your diligence to come shortly unto me, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed unto Thessalonica, crescens to Galatia, titus unto Dalmatia.

Now, who is that Mark?

Well, that's John Mark.

That's Barnabas' nephew, and over John Mark they had had a falling out.

So Barnabas and Paul were very close, ministered together.

Really, barnabas was the one that introduced Paul to the 12th or to the 11th, introduced him in kind, of because they were afraid of him because he'd killed Christians early in his life and so they didn't know he'd really been born again.

And so Barnabas had to hey, he's, he's, he's saved and he's one of us now.

So you know, 15 years, I mean, they didn't just embrace Paul, they didn't bring him into their confidence.

Barnabas was his, his, the one who God used to introduce him.

And then they traveled together in the first missionary journey and then, before the second missionary journey, they had a falling out about John Mark, because John Mark was a young man and he wasn't ready to go on the mission field.

He wasn't ready to go on that missions trip, he was too immature.

His uncle wanted him to go and he left them in a lurch.

You know, when you're going on a deal like that, you've got to have all men on, you've got to have everybody there.

He had a purpose of being there.

He's going to help.

You know, they got to camp out on the side of the road.

He's going to do some of the carrying of the stuff.

He's going to break camp and put camp together.

I mean, he's got a function and now he leaves them.

Well, you know, I mean, paul wasn't mad at him, he just saw that he wasn't ready to go on the second journey.

No, he can't come, he's not ready yet.

But he got ready later.

So something was wrong with Barnabas.

Barnabas was just a little bit too puffed up for his own good, because he falls right off the pages of the Bible.

He didn't understand this relationship, this anointing by association.

He didn't honor it.

Instead he got offended and you never hear from him again.

But John Mark is profitable to Paul for ministry.

Bring him to me.

It had nothing to do with his person, he was just immature.

You know, people have to grow into their ministry.

So bring him with ye, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

Antiochus, have I sent to Ephesus the cloak which I left Troas, so forth.

Look, verse 14,.

Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.

The Lord reward him according to his works, of whom you better beware also, for he has greatly withstood our words.

Listen to this one now, verse 16.

At my first answer, at my first trial.

At my first trial no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.

I pray God it may not be laid to their charge.

So it's not unusual for people to go south.

It's not unusual for people just to not have a revelation of the anointing by association and just treat it like a natural friendship or a natural business relationship or something like that.

You know, those kind of people are a dime and a dozen.

I'm not looking for them, I'm looking for the real thing.

And when I find it, I'm going to do my side of the equation.

I'm going to do what I should do, otherwise I answer to God Amen Notwithstanding.

The Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, that all the Gentiles might hear.

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work.

See, he's not bitter, he's just reporting.

I'm so glad he wrote it down.

It's helped me many times.

I know no one in here has ever been betrayed.

I know no one in here has ever had somebody turn on.

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me under his heavenly kingdom.

To him be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Come on, get your hands on that one.

Wow, talk about attitude, you know.

Talk about an attitude.

Paul had an attitude.

He was not smelling roses, he wasn't like a Pollyanna, you know, just putting rose-colored glasses on everything.

He saw things for what they were.

But he was not bitter, he forgave and kept on going, kept on going.

We've kept on going.

So I received an anointing by association and I'm I'm not ashamed to say it, it's not bragging, it's just it's.

It's my testimony.

I didn't have, I didn't come by it because of me.

I came by it because the Holy Ghost had arranged it and then he taught me how to keep it.

He taught me how to be faithful to it.

Are you with me now?

So I have this small testimony.

I guess I've shared it not that long ago, but we have new people all the time, so I never know for sure.

But I remember there came a time when Brother Osteen asked me to travel with him for the very first time and go on a trip to India.

He loved India.

India was his, you know.

He just really felt a strong call.

He went there many, many times, looking for the right people to hook up with.

He spent a lot of money, wasted money on people that weren't worthy of his help, but he just never gave up and never gave up.

And so we were going, he'd been, he'd been.

They were asking him you know, please come and do a crusade?

And he was trying to decide whether to or not, and he just kind of testing the water.

So we, he said, I'm going to go to Bombay, I want you to go with me.

I said, all right, good, I'd be honored, brother.

I was saying wow, wow, that's great.

Well, you got some vacay.

I said, well, I own my own business.

I take off when I want to.

How long are we going to be gone?

Well, just maybe a week or so.

I said, well, that's no problem, I'd be gone a week.

If I'm going to be gone a month, and it's with Continental Airlines, and they've got a flight that leaves, you know, at Intercontinental and it's nine hours and you get to it's direct to Paris, nonstop.

I said, oh, wow, that's awesome.

He said I'll be coming the next day.

You know, because I don't, I don't fly that flight.

I fly, you know, to New York and I spend the night and then I I fly, you know, to New York and I spend the night, and then I I'm, I'm coming later, and so I had his, his itinerary, and so, you know, I flew by myself, you know, and I didn't think a thing of it.

I mean it was not any.

I mean I'm honored as I could be to be able to, to be there with him and do whatever I can to make his trip easier.

I wasn't sure exactly what my, what I would do, but I knew I'd do everything I could carry his luggage or whatever I needed to do.

Of course they've got people to do that too.

Anyway, so I get there and a jet lag and everything.

You know it was a miserable flight I had.

I was in the middle of a bunch of people that don't believe in deodorant they come from a country that doesn't have deodorant and they stunk so bad.

And I'm in the middle of them and they're talking French and I don't understand a word they're saying, and they're going talking past me.

I'm in the middle of them and so there wasn't anybody in the middle section.

I said, hey, ms Stewardess, can I move over there?

Oh yeah, sure man.

I moved over to the middle section and I, uh, laid all the seats down and I went to sleep.

I slept for about three hours right in the middle of those.

You can't do that anymore Cause they pack them full of peacocks and dogs and cats and comfort animals and people now.

So you don't get to do that anymore, but anyway, comfort animals and people now.

So you don't get to do that anymore, but anyway.

So.

But I, you know jet lag, and so the next day, so you know, I get there like in the morning and I took a nap and then I went and ate and so he's going to get to the hotel about like I think it's around 930 at night, and so I thought you know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to, I'm going to wait for him outside of the hotel, I'm going to be standing there.

He's got a car.

He's going to come in and you know it's not a limo, but it's a.

It's a car, not a taxi, it's a car.

It's like a.

I think it was a Lincoln Continental and not a limo, but just a Lincoln Continental, just him and the driver.

And so he's coming from the airport Orly, you know, and he's going to pull up to the hotel and I'm going to try to time it where I'm right there and when he gets out of the car I'm going to be standing there and I'm going to salute him like a soldier, like this, and to me it was just kind of a fun thing.

I'm just going to mess with him a little bit, you know, kind of break the ice.

I'm going to be standing there when he gets out of the car, I'm standing at attention like this reporting for duty, sir, something like that, you know, and so I was kind of chuckling, you know, and I, you know, I.

So I stood out there about 30 minutes, cold, I mean, you know, here it is summertime but it's cold there and uh, and so I'm glad I had I had a, I had like a jogging suit on, was you know?

I had a, you know, and so it was pretty warm.

And so here here he comes, I know it's him.

He gets out of the car and I'm standing right there.

He opens the door, the guy goes to the trunk and gets his stuff and I do my thing and I and I salute him and he said, oh, john, and he, he, instead of laughing or anything, oh, john, he said John, and he, he grabbed me and he said John, I just apologize, I feel so bad.

I said what, what?

What's the matter?

He said, oh, I sent you by yourself.

He said I just feel terrible.

I, I, I just I shouldn't have done that.

I don't know what I was thinking.

You know, we should have traveled together.

I travel first class.

And here I sent you in the back of the plane and I said, oh, pastor Overson was just no, I mean it.

I listen, I didn't do the right thing.

The Holy Ghost, I really don't feel like I did you right and I just want you to know, from now on, when we travel together, we're going to travel together, see, he said, from now on, when we travel and we just started, I mean, all I did was play this sick kind of joke and it went right over his head because he was still under, you know, his spirit was grieved that he had done that to me.

He didn't treat me the way that the Holy Ghost wanted him to treat me.

Now you can commit to somebody like that, you can put yourself in prison for somebody like that.

And so from then on and there were many trips, quite a number, I mean I got to fly on the Concorde.

I mean that's pretty amazing and we always.

You know he, in fact he took me that later that day.

He said, john.

He said, do you value the anointing?

Yes, sir.

He said always protect your vessel.

Jesus said the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Laborers are few, john, take care of your vessel.

Always believe God to travel first class.

Held me by my lapels and see he had made me.

See that was he violated that for me because he had me travel in coach.

I know y'all are looking at me like, oh brother, well, what if you're Jerry Savelle and you die?

And I don't know why he died, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was deep vein thrombosis.

I mean, they fly everywhere, they go everywhere.

Yeah, they have their own plane, but they're flying.

Listen, I've flown for 40 hours.

It is hard on your body, it is hard on your brain, it's hard on.

I mean you get back from India.

You want to go to bed?

I never did.

I had to get back in the saddle and preach.

I had you know I'd be gone for eight days.

I learned how to go there myself, by myself or with Jay or Claire.

Claire never went to India with me, but she went to Philippines with me.

It's the same distance.

It's a long flight, isn't it?

Gwen?

That's a long flight.

You probably didn't fly first class.

No, well, I believe God, I did what my pastor said.

I had people leave the church when they found out I flew first class just because I want to do what my pastor told me to do.

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

Okay, I guess I'm not worth much to you.

I guess you'd rather I suffer.

Well, it's flying, it's just a lot.

Well, it's flying.

Let me tell you, it's no easy deal to sit in a plane that long.

No, I was able to commit myself to him, hallelujah, and I do value the anointing, anointing by association.

And I want you to value the anointing.

Do you value the anointing?

Just take care of yourself.

You know, brother Jerry, I might be talking and this is not on.

I don't know anything personal about him.

I just know that when he went it was a surprise to his family, a shock.

A few years ago he had a stroke.

I don't know if you all knew that, but he was very, very.

He was paralyzed and couldn't talk and he had to use his faith and he went into a barometric chamber for a month, oxygen.

He just lived in oxygen under pressure for a month and he came out perfect.

I mean you couldn't tell he had ever had a stroke.

His, his, his words were perfectly, he walked normally and everything else.

But you know, his wife just said, you know he didn't keep current with his doctor.

You know you got it.

You know you're 70 years old, 75 years old, you've just got to.

You got to have a checkup every now and then you got to, you got to.

You know, do you value your life?

Do you value your vessel?

We're vessels, we're containers and I value mine, especially since I came so close to going.

God gave me a extension.

Praise God.

I intend to stay here all the way to as long as I can.

Amen, the anointing, by association.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

Father.

We thank you for the anointing.

We give you praise and glory and honor for the anointing.