The Joseph Church

Pick your Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad in the devil mad.

Let's say this together.

Say haven't they, father, I'm glad to be here on a Sunday night.

There's such liberty in the house.

There's an anointing here to teach me what I need to know about my life.

I believe I've received revelation that will build my faith.

It will cause me to inherit the promises and complete the tasks that you've given me in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's look at our Bibles tonight to Psalm 105.

And we'll read here, starting with verse 16.

This morning we've been teaching on understanding the anointing.

This morning we taught on the corporate anointing and I told you that I was going to share a message in more detail about that subject.

I say the corporate anointing so each individual believer's got an anointing on the inside.

First, john 2.27, the anointing which you have received, a bighteth in you, the anointing with the end, and then, of course, when you receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the anointing upon you comes.

You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you.

But then the church is the same thing.

The church corporately has the anointing within the church and upon the church and it adds to.

The total is greater than the sum of the individual parts, and God is in the multiplication business.

But tonight, psalm 105, verse 16, moreover, he, that is God, called for a famine upon the land.

Psalms 105:16

He broke the whole staff of bread.

He sent a man before them talking about Israel.

Where Israel was in Canaan land, god sent a famine.

And before that hit, he sent a man before Israel, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant whose feet they hurt.

Who did that?

That was Egypt, whose feet they hurt with fetters.

He was laid in iron until the time that his word came.

The word of the Lord tried him and the king sinned and loosed him, even the ruler of the people and let him go free.

He made him Lord of his house and ruler of all his substance, ruler of all his possessions.

Imagine how many possessions the Pharaoh had To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom.

Israel also came into Egypt and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham and he increased that, as God increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.

And so tonight I wanted to talk about the Joseph church as part of the corporate anointing On Sunday nights.

I tried to illustrate revelation that God has given me over these 20, we're in our 28th year about what kind of church this is a regional center.

Others have prophesied over it that it's an apostolic vine with a prophetic flow, but here we want to talk about Joseph and then we want to relate what Joseph is to the apostolic and really hopefully given to this church, because that is where all this came from just revelation.

Over many years of God teaching me what I hadn't heard, didn't hear any of this much from my father in the faith.

I tried to talk about those things and, being an apostle, he didn't want to hear it.

He was an apostle.

He just didn't want to admit it and he didn't want to go there.

He just I'm a pastor, john, I'm just a pastor.

Well, no, he was pastor's pastor.

I mean, his last minister's conference had 6,500 pastors and leaders from all over the world there sitting at his feet, he and Dodie ministering to them, and I don't know if that's not an apostle, I don't know what it is.

Plus, I've traveled with him all over the world and watched him minister in a wholly different vein than you know, at Lakewood.

I mean, he was a pastor, he was a local pastor at Lakewood, but other than that he was an apostle.

He was standing more than one office at a time.

So Joseph here is an apostolic type.

What do I mean?

Well, in the Old Testament you have types and shadows, and so the Old Testament is the shadow, the New Testament is the substance.

So Joseph is a type of apostle.

Why?

Because he was sent ahead.

The Bible says here in Psalm 105, sent ahead of Israel to prepare the way for them.

They needed someone ahead of when they arrived.

And the Bible says in verse 16 that God broke the food support, broke the whole staff.

The word staff means support.

There's talk about a food shortage right now because of Ukraine.

I mean, I can see it.

Ukraine is a hugely productive nation for food.

It was always the bread basket of the Soviet Union, and for them to be under attack now and unable to harvest things that they normally would, and instead they're out there fighting, I would say probably.

I mean, european Union is probably bigger than anybody else and Russia itself.

Russia depends a lot on Ukraine, so it'd be interesting to see how this all plays out.

But you know, the Bible is progressive revelation.

The writers of the Bible, they didn't have any revelation about who did what.

God was always the one that was doing the bad stuff.

God sent the famine.

God killed this one.

We know that's not true.

It's the devil is the killer.

Jesus said don't get me mixed up with the devil.

The devil comes to what Steel, killing, destroy.

I'm coming that you might have life, have it more abundantly, superbundant quantity, superior quality.

God has never changed.

It's the same as yesterday, today and forever.

So he's not the author of the famines.

Famines come when people disobey God.

They fill a cup of judgment and they go on the wrong side of God.

It's not God sending anything.

They open the door to Satan to kill, steal and destroy.

Well, it says that.

I know it says that.

But you've got to read the Old Testament, new Testament, eyes.

I tell you that quite frequently, don't I?

Let's not get caught up.

People just get all fouled up about reading the Old Testament.

I'm in Job right now.

It's not my favorite book of the Bible, I have to tell you, because I have to go read all that garbage.

It's just junk, blah, blah, blah, blah.

In fact, the other day I said, ok God, blah, blah, blah, I can't read anymore.

I know y'all never do that.

You're so mature, you never give up on a book, but I'm not giving up.

I just had to suspend my reading there, anyway.

So God broke the food support.

And where was that?

Well, that happened in Canaan land.

And he started in Canaan land.

And they didn't have anything wrong in Egypt.

They had something wrong in where Canaan land, canaan land, was filled with idolatry.

You had baby killin' there.

They would make their children walk through fire to Mollach.

They happened in Jezebel.

Jezebel was not Jewish, she was a I forgot now what she was but she worshipped demons.

And so here he had married her and made her queen man.

That's bad stuff.

So these things happening and that was before this I mean, that happened later than this happened right here.

But God's judgment had already started falling on Canaan land because of the idolatry and it was not conducive for Israel.

Israel is just 70 souls, a few people you just got, you know, just got a few people that are Israel and it's not a conducive place for them to multiply.

They're going to be tempted to intermarry with the Canaanites and God's covenant people are going to be diluted and diluted.

And so you know, he wanted to protect his covenant people.

So he had a plan and he, you know, god always turns what the devil meant for evil into good.

It was the devil that made Joseph's brothers jealous of him and they did a.

They got heartless they were.

They sold him in the slavery and told his father that a lion ate him, brought back his, his coat of many colors, which they were so jealous of, the coat of many colors.

You read the story and and they lied, and poor daddy was just broken hearted.

They thought a lion had eaten his son all the time he was alive, but he was in prison.

He spent 13 years in prison and his soul came into iron.

Bible says his soul, his soul, came into iron.

In other words, his thinking was restricted by the long stretch that he spent in prison.

Even though he had those dreams and as a young man, you know he asked one of the one of the things that brought the difficulty on him was he.

He told his brothers and told his mother and father all of the secrets that God had showed him.

You just got to be careful who you tell your secrets to, cause not everybody's going to be real happy when you say they're going to bow down and worship you.

I mean you know Jacob wasn't real happy with that one.

You mean your mother and I are going to do that, boy, you've gone off your rocker, anyway.

So he, uh, let's look at Genesis 45.

Real quick, turn all the way back to Genesis 45.

I want you to see this so powerful.

You know, later on, after he spent all that time and Pharaoh brought him out, he interpreted his dream.

His gift made room for him, and the gift of dream interpretation is his dream, his.

He interpreted Pharaoh's dream, which is why Pharaoh brought him out.

I tell you, the world wants the supernatural, they want the church.

They don't want to.

They don't want to admit it.

But when the church starts sparkling with, the supernatural is going to open all kinds of doors.

We got to, we got to quit, you know, doing this in under, behind closed doors.

Let's get out in the marketplace and manifest the Holy gak Jealous.

Now, therefore, he met with his brothers.

Now they realize who.

They sold him in the slave room.

They just assumed he was dead and he's the head on show.

Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall at that meeting?

I would love to have been there.

You know what I mean.

They find out.

Oh, oh no, he's in charge of everything.

Oh, my God, what are we gonna do?

And so he says now, therefore, be not grieved or angry with yourselves.

And that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life.

See, he had to settle that in his own heart at some point.

See, that's revelation right there.

Apostles have revelation.

And he said for these two years has the famine been in the land, and yet there are five more years in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

And God sent me before you to preserve you, a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So God's plan.

Even though they were wrong in what they did, he turned what the devil meant for evil into good and used it to preserve Israel and to bring them into a place that was more conducive for growth than Canaan land.

They never would have grew to three million people in Canaan land, they would have intermarried and they would have disappeared.

Are y'all with me now?

God knows what's.

God doesn't live in time, he lives in eternity.

He sees the beginning and the ending all at the same time.

He's not limited by time.

And so Egypt became a place in which to multiply, and Joseph was there to procure, to gather, and he supported his family.

He brought them into the greatest thing and brought them into the greatest, the most fertile place of farming.

There was, an Egypt.

You know, egypt is not really known for its farming.

I mean, it is dry and dusty and you know, man, no rain, 11 inches of rain, I think, and it all falls at one time.

Other than that, there isn't any.

So where do you have to be?

I'd be on the Nile River Delta, which is where the land of Goshen was.

They brought them right into the Nile River Delta, the most fertile land there was.

I mean, he got the pick and Pharaoh didn't like farmers, he didn't like goats and he didn't like sheep.

And so they, you know he's yeah, let's go.

Yeah, that's where y'all need to be.

Get over there in Goshen, I don't have to smell and hear the goats, and so that's where they went.

And when they were small, and then the Bible says they multiplied greatly.

In the next verse we didn't read that one, but verse eight there In Psalm 105, they multiplied greatly.

In another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph rose up and they began to oppress Israel and they turned them into slaves, but they prospered as far as multiplying.

They had all the food they could eat.

They ate.

They grew their own food and they did well.

And so Joseph procured, gathered and supported his family.

And let's look at another one Genesis 39.

I want you to see this Talking about the Joseph church.

We're gonna get to the comparisons in a moment.

He's an apostolic type.

Why?

Because he's a sent one.

The word apostle means a sent one, one that sent ahead.

Your sent, some ministers were sent and some just went.

All right, psalm 39.

I mean, excuse me, genesis 39, 22.

Now let's go back up verse 21.

All right, let's go back to verse 20.

And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound.

And he was there in the prison.

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.

He was the doer of it.

So these apostolic words, you need to learn about these apostolic words, because they all apply to glorious way church.

You know, prophets say, but apostles do.

I laugh sometimes.

I think back in the charismatic revival.

There was this prayer movement, you know, and you had the first revelation Of the apostles and prophets.

They started bursting on the scene.

First was the revelation of people modern day prophets was in the 80s, and then the 90s came the apostles and this group I won't name them but anyway I won't name the ministers but they were fond of sending prayer teams and pulling down strongholds, which that's not even scriptural.

The strongholds are in your mind.

They're not over cities.

There's no scripture for going into a city, like going into, and I remember they sent a whole big group into Iraq, you know, before the invasion.

They're over there praying in Baghdad, doing all the praying down the demon path.

You don't have any right to pull down any demons over heathen.

Nations have absolutely no authority to do it and that's what they would do.

That was their idea of the apostolic.

No, the apostles don't just pray, the apostles do.

Are y'all with me?

Thank God for prophets.

We need prophets, but the apostles do.

This church is a doer church.

It's not just praying.

We do pray, but we do.

What goodness to do?

To pray and not do Pat yourself on the back?

Oh, we prayed about.

Well, did you do anything?

Well, no, I don't believe in voting.

So do do what.

So do do or fulfill, accomplish, complete, finish, advance.

How about forerunner?

How about pioneer?

This nation is a headship gift.

It's an apostolic gift to the whole world because it was founded on the idea of pathfinders and pioneers.

We had manifest destiny.

We went all the way across this country, from the East to the West, and I know that there were some suffering by Native Americans, indians.

They were mistreated, but let me tell you something for the most part, they worshiped demons, and God took the land from them and gave it to believers, or people who represented believers.

They weren't all perfect people either, but this was God's plan.

This is an apostolicly founded land that we live in.

You need to understand that before you start condemning our whole history.

Was everything done correctly?

Well, you know they're two sides to every story.

You know the Indians killed a lot of settlers.

They murdered a lot of pioneers running across there in the Rockies and all the other places where they lived.

They didn't like it.

So, yeah, you pick a fight, you're gonna have to finish it.

They couldn't finish it.

Did that make it right what we did?

Know, I don't believe it was right.

I don't believe it was right that we interred Japanese citizens that were US citizens and put them in internment camps during World War II.

That wasn't right either.

Who did that?

Democrats?

They're the ones that are always taking your rights.

All right.

So finish, advanced, full runner, pioneer, procure, supply, furnish, gather, prepare, distribute.

It's glory to God.

Can't do that poor, you can't do that dumb.

You gotta have some knowledge, you gotta have an anointing.

You know, when we started this church, I was sent and I started something virtually just from prayer.

I mean, I had no help.

This church wasn't planted.

Brother Austin didn't write me a check for $100,000 here, son, going out to Northwest Harris County, start that church.

No, nobody wrote me any checks.

I just had my house foreclosed on the one that I had built for two years and the bank took it on January the third and we started this church on January the 29th.

I was broke, busted flat.

So it wasn't my wealth either, it was an anointing, it was an apostolic anointing.

Now some churches are started, but any church that started from scratch, you read about a church that started in somebody's living room.

Somebody started something.

There's an apostolic dimension to that, whereas churches that are just planted, you know, somebody writes a check and hands it to somebody and tells them to go start it.

You know, a lot of times those don't work, they're weak.

A lot of times somebody hasn't really finished serving another minister.

You know Jesus said if you don't help another person, how would you ever have your own?

I served a long time helping somebody else, sowed a lot of seed before we started and I didn't leave until I had his full blessing, unreserved Amen.

So none of these things was revealed to me at the time.

We started this church.

I'm starting a local church out here in 1960.

I'm thinking 1960.

That's what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking the local church right here.

And then I told about the story this morning about 1996, we're out looking for property to build our first building.

I saw the circle with a star and God spoke regional centers.

So I went from five acre faith, 10 acre faith, 63.7 acre faith wound up with 92.7 acre faith and people thought I had lost my mind.

But the land miracle.

I mean we parlayed that into what we have today, all those years later.

God is long term.

He doesn't just snap his fingers and do things tomorrow.

Just look at how long it took for Joseph.

He's in prison 13 years.

His soul came into iron.

My soul has been in iron.

I know exactly how that feels.

What do you mean?

Well, your mind gets limited.

You start thinking is there ever gonna be an end?

You know, my soul came into iron when we moved into the seventh day Adventist church Damn it, west Houston, oh my God.

Every time I drive by that building I just have chills.

Four and a half years we were stuck there, but God put us there.

I know it was God.

I had the witness of the Spirit.

See, if I hadn't had the witness I would have given up on that thing.

But he put us there and we had to pass some tests.

You know, joseph had to pass some tests.

He couldn't just walk right into it.

He had to walk right into this anointing and this ministry.

When he was 18, he had to mature, he had to spend some time with God, he had to get some things settled and you know what?

He got a lot of things and he developed in that gifting that he had.

Y'all with me now.

So this is a Joseph church and it's been proven out.

I mean, we're walking in it today and I've been preaching this for years.

But I mean we really are coming into this way.

I mean, you know, for us to do what we've done it's been a matter of the corporate anointing.

It wasn't just me, it was all of us together.

The corporate anointing, which is why I teach this, because each of you need to know what type of church this is, so you can walk in the anointing that God has for you.

You all have a part in it.

So years ago I was out on my patio probably I don't know it was, I think when I was, it was after the regional center revelation and before Brother Osteen went to heaven.

I think it was probably 98.

I was out on my patio just reading my Bible and I don't remember if I was reading these verses or not.

Psalm 105 has always been a deer to me.

I've gotten a lot of revelation out of just one Psalm and I liked to walk and pray.

I got up out of my chair and was walking up and down and I felt something heavy on my shoulders and I kind of looked.

You know, I think I looked back to my left.

What it's?

Something, something fall on me.

You know I felt a weight and when I did, I saw this striped colored mantle on my shoulders and I could hear it dragging the ground behind me and then it just disappeared, just a glimpse that long.

It shocked me.

But I thought instantly of the code of many colors.

I started reading about Joseph.

I started reading about his anointing.

I started getting, I started getting revelation about the apostolic.

This is before Brother Osteen passed, and you know I'm careful about titles.

I don't give myself.

My title is pastor.

I don't try to give myself a title.

But at the other side of the coin, you don't want to deny anointing that.

You have that.

You know you have.

That doesn't help.

That false humility is not really scriptural either.

I mean, everybody starts out somewhere, and Paul started off as a teacher and then he became a prophet and a teacher and then he became an apostle.

But he was always a prophet too.

You don't lose being a prophet just because you're an apostle.

Are you with me now?

So Brother Hagin always teaches.

Everybody starts out either a preacher or a teacher.

So don't be taller than yourself anything else until you know what you are.

And he pastored for 12 years and he wasn't even called to be a pastor.

God Jesus told him that one time he said I never called you the pastor.

I allowed you to pastor, but you never were called to be a pastor.

He wondered why it was so hard.

But I know I'm called to be a pastor, I know I am.

My pastor told me I was a pastor.

He identified that gift on me and verified it.

Anyway.

So the vision of my mantle, a mantle is a symbol of a mandate, and a mandate is an authorization to act or to do that apostolic word do.

It's an authorization to do given to a representative.

That's what a mantle is.

So that when Elisha received the mantle from the fiery chariot of Elijah, he asked Elijah.

He said I want a double portion of your anointing.

Ask what you will.

I want a double portion.

You've asked a hard thing.

Nevertheless, if you see me, it'll be done, if you don't.

And of course, there was a lot of fireworks.

There's all this glory, there was these angels, there's all this stuff.

And he kept his eyes on Elijah as he was leaving the earth on the fiery chariot.

He went all the way to heaven.

He's up there along with Enoch.

There are two men in their natural bodies in heaven today, and he's one of them.

And he said the chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof.

That's what he said, my father, my father.

He kept his eyes on Elijah.

Elisha did, and what did Elijah do?

He threw down his mantle, which was his authorization to do or to act.

And if you look at the Elisha's mantle, it's a mantle that he threw down.

And he said I want a double portion of your anointing.

And if you look at his ministry, elisha's ministry, I had about double the amount of miracles.

Elijah had miracles and Elisha had twice as many.

What Jesus said, the works that I do, shall you do also, in greater works than these, shall you do so?

We've been given permission, in fact, to challenge, to do more than Jesus did.

Think we've got a long way to go, don't you?

And it's not gonna get there unless we.

What do we have to do?

We have to do and do.

Is that?

What it do is an apostolic word.

So this mantle, many colors, see, variegated, very multifaceted, multi-purposed.

Just think about all the things that God has allowed this church to enter into and to have influence in, not just politics, electoral politics, but so many things, terrorism just name all of the things, storms that we've governed, and we talked about some of that this morning.

And so just after that, a little while after that, I was out there in that patio, still living that house, and I was praying one day and I had a vision of this.

It looked like a boxing ring.

I don't really know why they call it a ring, because a boxing ring is not circular, it's square.

That's why they call it a ring.

I never have anyway, so it, but it had no ropes, it was just the platform and it was a tower.

Sitting on top of a tower was this softer, like a boxing ring where you got some give to it?

And it was way up above and I was up there and kind of spooky when you're way up tall and you don't have any walls and there's no guard rails or anything.

I was just in the moment I was like a trance.

I was up on the top of this tower and this platform and that was my seat of authority that God was showing me and I knew in that moment it was just seconds long, it wasn't long, it was a snapshot, and I knew it was futuristic.

I knew it was something that God was preparing me to occupy, or y'all are looking at me kind of funny, but this is the corporate anointing.

It's not just me, it's not John Griner, it's glorious way, church and the opportunity we have right now.

That's why I'm not gonna give up on America.

I'm not giving up on this coming election.

I'm not giving up on the midterms.

I'm not giving up on the things that we have authority because we have such power.

We've been given authorization to do something.

Glory to God, and we're seeing the manifestation of these things happen more and more.

Think about the power that Joseph had.

Buddy, when he came down the street, people parted, they man, they reverenced him.

He was equal to Pharaoh in all things, except the ultimate path.

Pharaoh was over him, but there was nobody else over him.

He was immediately and he had an identical chariot.

He had the signet ring.

He could do business on Pharaoh's behalf with just slapping that ring down and making a decree.

He bound his government and his word taught his senators wisdom.

I mean, you know, if they he would even use teachable moments sometimes.

But he didn't need to, he just ruled.

Have you ever really read the story of the of the dream and how he basically rearranged the entire country of Egypt and all the all the property in Egypt became Pharaoh's.

People gave up everything to eat.

That's where we're headed.

We're headed there in this country right now.

We you know, when people start starving, then people can't get anything to.

They will get nothing to eat.

People can't get anything to.

They will give up all their rights.

They'll give up everything they have just to be able to have food in their mouth.

And that's exactly what he did.

So we can, if he can do that, we can stop that.

I said we can stop that.

Okay, so then I got a major mandate just five weeks after brother Austin went to heaven.

The night that he went to heaven, I had an experience.

I won't go into all of that, but I know that was the night I received my inheritance and I had a heads up right before that, in November.

It was January 23rd when he passed in November.

Sometime in November I had a trance fall.

It fell in a trance and I I saw a legal proceeding where his will, the last will and testament, was being written and read, and I didn't hear what it was that he left me.

I just heard the words, like an attorney would read at the reading of a last will and testament.

I don't know how I knew, but I knew it was Pastor Austin.

Pastor Austin felt alive.

He's still fighting for his life and I felt guilty at this.

I didn't realize it was a trance until five, you know, weeks later.

But this trance, I fell in this trance and I heard the lawyer say and to John Griner I bequeathed.

I didn't hear what it was, that he left me, but then I felt the awe and the wonder and the joy of it and then I said you mean, he left me that I'm not even his blood.

And then I woke up and I rebuked the devil, get out of here, devil, he will live and not die in the clear of the works.

I mean, I felt guilty.

I mean, here we were believing God for him to live and I'm already having some kind of visitation.

I didn't recognize it as a visitation until the night, two o'clock in the morning, when I got the phone call.

They'd collapsed and take him to the hospital and of course they didn't pull the plug on him till that afternoon.

But he was gone right then because God told me don't praise Moses, my servant is dead now, therefore rise.

And I felt something fall on me.

I felt something, and I won't call it his mantle, I'm not gonna be that arrogant.

He's got children, he's got other people that he imparted to, but I got my inheritance, and part of that inheritance is the apostolic.

Are y'all with me now?

And that's when I began to realize, and the other minister started confirming that.

I sat with a minister in Tulsa just a few weeks later and she said are you aware that you're an apostle?

I started talking, reading my mail.

We were sitting at a place eating after we were there for a winter Bible seminar.

But anyway, are y'all getting anything out of this?

So five weeks after Brother Osteen went to heaven, on March the first 99, came a major mandate.

God told me to wake up the church.

Well, you know how do you do that?

Well, I've been learning how to do that all these years, 20, 23 years, as of March the first, last month.

Wake up the church.

That's quite a, that's quite something to hear.

And since then I've run into other ministers and none of them are mega church pastors.

They're, all you know, pastors, just normal people that God visited.

I wonder whether any of these mega church pastors would even be willing to wake up the church?

I don't know.

Good question, but the church is asleep and needs to be awakened.

And you know another time that God spoke to me.

I have mentioned it recently, but 2004, we were just back, it was 2003,.

We were pouring the slab on the lobby and the children church slab built in this building.

And God spoke to me and he said there's a dearth of the word.

I said, lord, you have to show me how is that possible?

There's more churches on the earth now today than there ever has been.

How can there be a dearth, how can there be a famine of the word?

He said your children don't know what you know.

He started talking to me about a lost generation.

He started talking to me about the generation gap.

He talked about a whole generation that's rising up that don't know anything about him and a lot of them are our kids.

They leave here and go off into college and they become disassociated with the church.

They lose their faith.

They're leavened by demon power.

You better watch your kids.

But we redoubled our efforts to make sure that we put into our children from the very youngest grades, even in the nursery.

We're conscious to put into our little nursing babies all the way up until they graduate high school, who they are, what they have, what they can do.

We redoubled that effort.

We're still doing it, we're still committed to it.

Amen.

So we, you know, really, he sent us ahead and gave us these things a little ahead to preserve a posterity.

See how similar it is to Joseph, because when I first started saying these things and doing these things, nobody could have done it.

And doing these things, nobody wanted to hear it.

I mean, nobody wrote a book in 2005, rise Up and Reap.

I went to brother Oral Roberts.

He had a visitation.

In his visitation of God he had a corrective word.

This is Oral Roberts I'm talking about.

He has never had a corrective word for the church.

He always says positive things God is gonna do something good for you today.

He came out with a God is good revelation back in the 40s and Pentecostal preachers didn't like it.

I wish you'd quit saying that.

People are gonna get the wrong idea of God.

What do you mean?

See, he was ahead of his time, but when it came time for God to correct the church, he went to Oral Roberts and told Oral Roberts you know the church.

There's a wasting of power in my church, my church is not ready for the second coming.

And he began to say that.

I heard him say it twice on Christian television and neither interview was adequate in my opinion.

I've done a little bit of interviewing on television.

I know a little bit about it.

I know how to draw things out of people.

We interviewed Lonnie Rex while he was still on earth.

We interviewed TL Osborne while he was still here, amen.

I interviewed Derek Prince while he was still here.

Channel 14, what a privilege.

I got to interview Oral Roberts.

I've got the DVD out there.

I know DVD is old tech, I understand that, but it's just as fresh today as it was in 2005.

And I wanted to know all of them and I asked him.

I asked him so many questions and finally, at the end of an hour and a half, I said well, I have one more question.

He said make it your last, I'm tired.

I thought, oh my God.

I thought he was gonna bite my head off and he was.

I was man, I was pulling it out of him.

Nobody had challenged him, nobody had.

You know, I know enough about visitations.

You've got to have people that know how to pull all of the detail out.

It's easy for it to leave you, and if nobody asks you, it does leave you, because a year later I went to see him and it didn't.

Nothing was there.

It was like it never happened.

Are y'all with me now?

So I started talking to other pastors and I started talking to everybody.

I could find friends of mine, different ones.

It was just like hit on the wall.

I didn't want to hear about that.

They didn't want to hear about the church being asleep.

They didn't want to hear about wake up the church.

They didn't want to hear about that.

They didn't care.

They didn't want to do their thing.

They got their thing to do and that's what they want to do.

They're not interested.

So you know, god sent me ahead to preserve a posterity and to save many lives alive.

Are y'all with me now?

And you're all part of that.

I'm bold to say it.

I'm not taking credit for anything, I'm just telling you.

I'm giving you the history of it.

Praise God, come on, let's lift our hands.

Thank God, for this is why we live now.

We could have lived at any time in history.

We live in the end days.

So Joseph, life prepared him for his ministry and he went through a whole lot of.

He went through a place where he had to forgive his brothers and they treated him like a dog or worse.

I don't think you'd even treat your dog like that Through him in a pit, went off and left him yeah, yes, it's horrible.

And one of them felt guilty and came back and then sold him in.

I mean God, lee, I mean what?

How you talk?

You talk about a dysfunctional family, the 12 tribes.

That's a dysfunctional family.

You read about that family.

You think you got trouble in your family.

Read about the 12 tribes.

And God used them, didn't he?

I think God can use us.

You know Jesus said it this way many are called and few are chosen.

Said it twice.

Many are called but few work out, see, because it's called qualified and then commissioned or chosen.

Everybody say called, qualified, commissioned, see, the calling is not the qualification.

You know he can call a donkey to talk.

He listen.

Calling is not the end of the deal.

Calling is the beginning of the deal and then comes the qualification and it's usually lifetime.

It's going through all kinds of things.

I've been saying this about the anointing upon you, but it will bring you into trials and tribulations.

The calling of God or the anointing upon you will bring you into trouble.

And if you don't have a strong anointing within you, if you don't have a strong relationship with God in your prayer life, your word life and you're doing, you'll fail and you won't attain what God wants for you to do.

So after he passed and all of that happened in 99, 9-11 happened.

We were in the seventh day Adventist church and I went away and God warned me a few weeks before, gave me the tsunami dream in June and he warned me that something was happening.

I just didn't identify it.

I didn't put two and two together, but I went away to pray after the twin towers fell and all of the aftermath of everything, and God began to talk to me and he said you know, he said the responsibility, the authority, the booty.

Use the word booty and I'm not talking about a body part, I'm talking about treasure Booty is pirate.

Treasure Booty is what you get when you conquer an enemy, he said.

He started with word responsibility.

He said responsibility, authority, booty and provision of another is being granted to you.

It's about to be granted to you, is what he said Right after 9-11.

We're still in the seventh day church.

I mean, we don't.

When we have a visitor, it's like a red letter day.

Nobody even knew we were there.

I mean, it's like locked up in a.

We called it the church in the cave.

They wouldn't even let us put a sign up until early Sunday morning and then by Wednesday night after the service we had to pull it down.

So, unless you happen to be driving by, in three days you didn't even know, glorious way, church was there.

You just thought it was West Houston, the seventh day Adventist church.

They're there on Saturday, we're there on Sunday.

You know it was God's provision, though I had to remind myself.

And he said responsibility, authority, booty and provision of another is about to be granted unto you.

He said take heed, let no man take thy crown.

That book of Revelation.

Jesus warned Take heed to yourself, let no man take thy crown.

Which let me know that a crown was being taken from someone.

And God said you know, you're not my first choice.

I've already interviewed your replacement.

God has a way of keeping you humble, keeping you grounded, realizing it's all Him.

You know John said this way you know I must decrease and he must increase.

So everything I'm saying is from that standpoint.

It's not a bragging, it's not a look at me, look what I've done.

It's what I've done and what we're about to do, and the emphasis on the word do.

Are y'all with me now?

So I just wanna hear, in our 28th year, I just wanna commend you and thank you for all of you, whether you've been here through all of it or through just a short time of it.

I know some of you just been here recently, but we all part alike and I just wanna thank you for all of you.

And I just see some things on the horizon and some that are not really on the horizon but they're right at the door that we're gonna experience coming up and I just commend you.

Let's look at Psalm 149.

Gonna wrap it up?

Ooh, it's late.

Anybody sleepy?

You're about ready to go to sleep?

I won't keep you much longer.

Psalm 149 in verse four For the Lord takeeth pleasure in his people.

That's what I wanted you to see.

The Lord takeeth pleasure.

He takes pleasure, and he takes pleasure in.

I've got three things.

He takes pleasure in your faithfulness.

Thank you for being faithful over your tithes and offerings.

Thank you for being faithful.

Many of you were faithful during those seventh day, advanced years.

Thank you for being faithful, when there's been all kinds of rumblings and complainings and murmurings.

You know it's not without stresses and strains that we've arrived at this place and thank you, god, commend you for your faithfulness, and then God has pleasure in our focus and we're focused on the task at hand, the doing and the procuring, the gathering, and a lot of it is pioneering.

It's like you feel alone, you're the only one saying it.

Well, that's changing now.

Finally, finally, after 23 years, we're not the only ones saying it, others are picking up on it.

People are starting to wake up.

People are starting to realize oh my church, I've got a oh.

Oh, my church is turning woke.

Oh, my church, people are waking up.

So he has pleasure in our focus and we're honing in on the end time harvest.

I mean we haven't taken off, taken our eyes off with all the other things that we're about.

The bottom line is Jesus is coming and will he find faith on the earth?

So that's our focus, our focus.

We haven't lost the focus on the fact he's coming and and then God has pleasure in our fearlessness.

We've just had to Be able to be willing to be labeled, be called names, because haters, people hated on us when we opened during COVID death threats online on the telephone and Fearlessness.

We fear God, not man and God had put he has pleasure.

God has pleasure in His people, he has pleasure in you and I do too.

I commend you.

I Couldn't do this by myself.

I commend my family.

My family's been so wonderful and James and Claire and Jay and and Selena and the grandkids I commend them.

They just they're, they're so exceptional.

Well, there you're, grandkids.

I know it.

I know grandkids that I I know some ministers, kids that have not turned out that well, and their grandkids are even worse, and I'm Joyful.

I thank God for them every day, the way that they've been raised, the way that they've taken hold, and it's, it's a blessing To have a family like I have, like a wife like I have.

It was Mother's Day in 2014 when she fell and broke her hip and and you and you've been faithful to watch her all these years and and she sometimes she struggles.

Tonight she just couldn't stay.

She was dizzy and couldn't sit there anymore and so she went home, but she wanted to be here and Thank you for honoring her on Mother's Day.

Many of you and I Commend you and God Lord commend y'all proud clothes with this.

Years ago, 1988, when we ever started the church, lakewood was having a world convention.

Gladys and I were both involved in separate areas.

We were, and so since we were both working at different places, doing different things there, I don't even remember what they they had a Group of rooms for the volunteers at a hope at a motel was a motel Not too far from the church, and so we, we got a room so we wouldn't have to drive all the way home.

We lived in spring and so we didn't have to drive all the way home.

We could just go around, you know, a couple of miles to the motel and spend the night, get up early the next morning.

We just didn't have all that commuting to do and it was a blessing.

Our kids were old enough to watch after themselves, so we had to go off, leave her kids and they're in school.

And here we are in this world convention and we're working, you know, early to Late, all day, all night.

So it started early in the week and then by Thursday I mean we are just really tired and we just said, you know, we got to go home, we, we got to go see our kids, make sure they're okay, make sure there's food in the house.

We got to make sure and so we we took the afternoon off.

Somebody had crammed some cash in my hand at some point, and so we were driving home and I said you know what we need to do?

We need to stop off at Poppus.

So we stopped off at Papa's, just at Greens Point, right there, just just south of Greens Point, on the west side of the freeway, and we went in there and they've got this room in the front.

That's usually kind of reserved nowadays for small parties, but it's just a single aisle with tables on either side of a single aisle and that's all.

It's closed off from the rest of the Restaurant and for whatever reason they they seated us in there, buyers.

There was nobody else in there, but just the two of us, and and and I Sat against the wall, my right shoulder was against the window you could see outside here and Then the table was for four and nobody was sitting in next to the aisle, so it's just the two of us sitting inside like that.

We left the left left, that, which was kind of weird.

Why didn't we sit on the?

I don't know why we didn't, but we didn't.

And so the waiter came in, they took our order and I was talking to gladus.

I said, you know, I just wish Bob and Sylvia were here, because Sylvia loved fried shrimp.

She could eat, she loves shrimp.

I Said if she could be here she would order that fried shrimp.

And I mean she would be.

And they were on the mission field there in Mexico.

I know they're not eating fried shrimp, they'd be doing good not to be eating monkey brains, but anyway we were missing them.

And then, you know, I'm sitting there and we're so tired, we're just so.

I mean, is all I could do to keep my eyes open, you know, in order to Enjoy this, what I'm about to have.

And I felt this hand on my right shoulder, which is next to the wall, and it's pulling me like this.

And so I turn around, who is trying to get my attention over here?

And it was nobody there, just the hand pulling my shoulder around.

And Suddenly I was like plugged into 220 volts.

I mean, every hair on my body stood attention.

I was Electrified.

It was the Lord.

My eyes Started squirting water.

I just I wouldn't cry and I was just water is coming out my eyes and I got a lump in my throat, glad.

I said what's wrong?

I Couldn't talk.

I Said it's the Lord what I Said, lord.

What's wrong?

First thing in my mind is somebody about to die in here.

Do I need to go lay hands on somebody and raise somebody from the dead?

What is a matter?

I mean this anointing that I have?

I'm feeling like I am ready to raise the dead.

I mean, what do you want?

Why did you come here?

What's wrong?

That's my first, first thought.

He said I just came to commend you, came to commend you for your service.

I Tell you the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

He can't do anything for him that he doesn't know and that he doesn't appreciate.

Amen.

So we've got a lot ahead of us.

Let's just believe and know that God is taking pleasure in us, he's with us and in us.

To do it.

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight Hallelujah.