Ministering Unto The Lord or Man?

You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week.

We helped you enjoy this message from Justin Carpenter.

Yes, ma'am. Come on, we've got two or three testimonies

from church camp for the youth. So if you're a

ute and you got a testimony, come on up.

Hey, if you went to camp, come on up here. Anyways, Yeah,

everybody can't went to camp. Yes, this is important, very

important moment.

Okay.

We took a small group this year of only about

ten kids because we just did high schoolers, because we

did camp a little different. Olivia awesome, and a couple

of us are representing with our camp shirts really quick.

We were the Midnight Ninjas because we're like stealthy and yeah,

we're carrying Jesus to people and anyways, okay, and we're

like fighting the enemy. Okay, I won't do any moves,

all right. Anyways, So I just asked, uh, there's a

few that want to share, and they're just gonna give

you a quick snippet of their experience of what they

took away from camp. Yeah, okay, who wants to go first? Well,

I give make it like a minute to two.

Hello, y'all for those who don't know me, and my

name is Ethan Streebeck. I do absolutely nothing here, but

I am in the youth group. Uh So at camp,

I wanted to go there. So I've already went to

camp the past three times because we've done it for

four years now, and there I prayed for a lot

of people.

I got to reach out.

I got to reach out to people.

Uh And it was really a blessing to be able

to uh go and see new faces and be able

to talk to people and pray over people and change lives.

But one particular thing that happened was me Kobe and

where is he? He's not here, Micah right there.

We all went over to this young gentleman and he

had hurt his knee very badly.

So he asked us to lay hands on it, and

we did.

And what happened was, as we were praying for it,

praying for healing, all three of us felt it snap

back into place.

He didn't feel that, but we did. He felt no

pain after, So pretty awesome. All right?

His next who's supposed to share?

Okay, So I'm Kobe Massey and I am proudly basically

adopted by these two amazing people.

And.

I was actually not even the Christian until about March,

and so moving in with them. This was my first

time going to camp, and I actually had a lot

of anger in my heart still kind of towards God

because I blamed him for things that have happened to

me in my life. And so I got humbled pretty

bad there and it was crazy, and so I actually

came home on fire and we were sitting at the

highly anointed dining table and I was just, you know,

kind of feeling down, and he did a session on

me with inner healing and I cried for like thirty minutes,

and the lords just I don't I really don't know

what I'd do without y'all. I still remember the first

night I got there with my trash bag and a

couple of clothes and I was just like, wow, that's

a big house.

So the house was so big.

Sorry, Okay, So I have wanted to introduce Kobe to

y'all as a church, but I didn't know timing wise

and how or when you would feel comfortable with doing that.

So since Kobe has brought it to you all, I

want to introduce Kobe Lee Massey our third spiritual bonus

son that we are so proud of having in our life.

That we know.

That the Lord literally plucked him up and plopped him

in our house and now we have the honor to

be able to have him as a son. And I

am so proud of you and what you have come

through and how far you have come, and you are

a blessing to us. Aul. So I would love to

encourage all of you church to get to know Kobe

because he's amazing.

N I also like before Camp, I still kind of

hated people, and they really taught me humility and I

just gotta love people where they are. And I just

I told the Lord one night, I was like, I

hate people. I'm not gonna love them ever. And then

I camp again, like I said, I got humbled really bad,

and now I can look at someone and love them

where they are.

So yes, good job. You should place it to Jossa

that we're forcing it.

To Okay, Okay, I don't really have a testimony. I

just kind of wanted to share what I like took

away from Camp. The speaker there this I've gone the

last three years, and the speaker there this year's name

was Rory and he had a really good way of

speaking to teenagers and like putting it in ways we

can understand. So he talked a lot about for forgiveness,

and something he compared it to was like paying off

your debt. You don't like, say you were a million

dollars in debt. You don't need to go and just

freak out and pay the a million dollars or pay

the price, like you can pay two hundred thousand, you

can pay five hundred thousand, That's what he told us.

You can forgive three hundred thousand. You don't need to

freak out because like how I took it was like

God is like right there and he's with you, and

in the midst of the chaos of trying to figure.

Out, like what am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do? Like I need to do

this or everything's gonna like like be in shambles, Like

He's right there, and you don't need to freak out

and do it all in once. You can do it

in parts and it'll be okay.

That's it. And I just want to say that's a

testimony that Jocelyn just got up here in front of

all y'all and shared you do not even know that

is huge. So I'm so proud of you. Okay, one more,

one more person, haven't said money? My more, Juliana, Jake, Jake, Jake,

you got something. Jake has something, but you really don't

have to if you don't want to. Okay, Okay, sorry, pressure,

A little pressure.

Is okay, right, horrific.

So I'm Jake Keflin, an incredibly humble member of this church. Yeah,

I'm actually Justin and Lisa's favorite son by the way,

just saying yeah, that's what I'm just kidding. So I'm

not going to share a testimony. I'm just going to

say thank you to miss Kim for sowing seeds of

faith and just continually growing with us as a youth

group instead of just expecting us to do it on

our own. Yeah, we've we've all cried a little bit together.

It's it was.

It's been great. Yeah, I'm miss Kim. You're the goat,

so fine, don't listen to him, You're the goat. So yes,

thank you so much, miss Kim for making camp happen

and all the awesome other things you do.

Good job, that's a nice way around it.

Good job.

Okay, Juliana, did you have something to share. No, you good?

Okay, all right.

So overall, I just want to say I'm proud of

all these I know we're taking a little bit longer, sorry, guys,

but these high schoolers really stepped it up while we

were there, and we had a meeting, and I'm really

impressed how they came to me and they're like at

the meeting, they were like, we want to begin to

really lead a youth group. We really want to. We

want this to be real, we want to take it

to the next level. We want to go out and

minister to people and bring them into the Kingdom of God.

And I really watched them in a matter a few

days really like commit to growing in more boldness. So

I'm really excited for the next few months and how

that's going to play out. So y'all keep praying for

these kids. They are absolutely amazing and your prayers are working.

So yeah, thank you.

That's awesome. Oh update, building update. We are plugging along,

getting more hard numbers in filling in all the empty spots,

and we put over forty grand last week into the

building fund. So we're excited, excited, excited, all three of you, y'all.

It We've said this multiple times, but it's not It's

not about the buildings, It's about what goes inside of them.

It's about what happens on that twenty five acres in

the very near future and the capacity for that to

be a part of the fulfillment of becoming an Apostolic hub,

a modern day Antioch. And I believe that wholeheartedly. I

believe that's what we're called to do, and we're going

to keep charging with the vision and the mission that

the Lord's given us. I had a dream this past

week a few days back, and sometimes I need help

with dream interpretation, and so that's when my buddy John

Thomas comes in and I sent him this dream, and

he goes, why do you why do you give me

the hard dreams. I'm like, cause I need help. And anyways,

I feel like this dream is a warning to the

Body of Christ and to those that minister prophetically in

this season, I walked into Mark DuPont. If you all

know who Mark DuPont is. Mark DuPont was on staff

with the ar Nots the Toronto Movement in the mid nineties.

He prophesied about a Niagara Falls type outpouring coming to Toronto,

roughly a year and a half before it happened. Mark

is a legitimate prophet who travels internationally. He's been with

us once, he's gonna be with us again this January.

And so I walk into what appears to be it's

the house that he's in staying at felt very much

like Kerrville. And he told me he found a secret

room at the house. And when I looked through the doorway,

I saw what seemed to be an entire house. Through

the doorway, I saw that he was set up in

the office and had been staying in a bedroom in

that area. Then the dream changes and we're outside towards

the back of the house, back of the driveway, and

Marcus taking a newspaper and he's fixing to throw this

newspaper into this blue dumpster. And the dumpster was full

of newspapers, discarded newspaper, old news. And then there was

a line of dead cedar trees lined up all the

way down the property line, stacked like cords, but full

trees with no life on them. And I told Mark,

be careful. If you set that newspaper on fire, it's

gonna set the trees on fire. And it's all gonna

go up in a flame, and he was putting the

newspaper in the dumpster. As it started to touch the

other newspapers, it started to catch fire with the newspapers

and the dumpsters, and then the first cedar tree started

to catch fire, but we were able to knock the

flames out and thankfully it did not catch on fire

and burn up. And if you don't know what that

dream means, like Bob Jones says, you're a dull non

plan obviously, I honestly was like, okay, I have some

components of understanding of these elements, but I wanted to

tap on my buddy who is very gifted in that

interpretive arena. And this isn't This is the gist of

the dream, not all of it. Still praying into some

of it. But obviously Mark represents prophetic ministry, particularly a

more mature expression. The house would be the prophetic environment

that comes from the expression, the secret place that is

not so obvious but holds the mature expression, and you've

been experiencing that. The newspaper would be the news the

words released, care needs to be taken and how it

is discarded as carelessness can release destruction in leadership unnecessarily.

I feel like there's he mentioned that there was something

else still praying into it, and I'm praying into it.

But the gist of it is, y'all, now more than ever,

we have to be careful with our words, and specifically

God's words. When we have a prophetic word, you have

to understand says life and death and the power of

the tongue, and how we handle these words, how we

discard words can actually be very detrimental. In this season

when when people bite the dust, it's very careful. We

need to be very careful to actually be praying for

these people, praying for the repentance and those that were

needless casualties of war, praying for them, praying for the victims.

We need to remember that we've been given the ministry

of reconciliation, not the minute history of destruction. And we

need to have the very heart of Jesus and right now,

and I've sound like a broken record, but I can't

help it. There is so much there's so many voices

out there trying to capture our attention, trying to capture

our ears. Everybody's an expert. Just get online. Seriously, everybody's

an expert. Just get online, they'll tell you. And now

more than ever, what we need is the body of Christ.

Understanding that Moses cry of his heart was that all

God's people would be prophets. Well, guess what fast forward

in the New Covenant and the Holy Spirit's living inside

of every one of you. If you're following ministries that

are giving daily prophetic words, knock it off. Get in

the Word. Cultivate intimacy. A true prophet's job is to

hold the Covenant of God before the people, and then

to equip the body of Christ to be able to

hear from Jesus for themselves, not spoon feed you and

have basically Christian horoscopes every day. Are y' all with me?

And we need genuine, real intimacy with the Lord Jesus.

Jesus said in John ten my sheep hear my voice,

the voice of a stranger. They won't follow. But I

have news for you. If all you do is listen

to online voices, or if you're not in the Word,

you will give way to seducing spirits. Because it says

in the last days there'll be doctrines of demons by

seducing spirits, and that word seduction is not just a

sexual seduction. It is seducing for knowledge. It's seducing for

your pride, it's seducing for your control. It's the enemy

seducing you wherever you have a stronghold, and he wants

to bring you in so he can take you out.

Because we're in a seed war, and it goes back

to Genesis three. I will put M and T between

his seed and your seed. And we're living that out

right now. The enemy's working as hard as he can

because he knows his time is short to try to

hurt humanity, because that's the only way he could potentially

get towards the Lord. The Lord's not afraid of him.

He's not up there biting his fingernails. You know what,

when when we uh yesterday evening, when we dropped thirty

thousand pound bombs on a nuclear facility in Iran, that

did not take the Lord by surprise. But I want

to tell y'all now more than ever, we need to

be watching and praying. That watch is an hour. Jesus

said to the disciples, Can you not pray one hour?

Can you not watch and pray one hour? Y'all? What

nothing of significance in the Kingdom will ever happen without intercession,

without intimacy. And our number one job right now on

planet Earth, first and foremost is actually ministering to the Lord.

There's a reason why most of our service is about

ministering unto Him, worshiping him, taking communion, because in the

mystery of this communion, as we hold these elements, the

real presence of Jesus comes and every week as often

as we do this, we do this and remember it

to Him until he returns. We need people that are

more concerned about the altar of the Lord than this.

We need a generation to arise that cares more about

making Jesus famous than their TikTok video going viral. Y'all,

how much act do we do in a week that

really has no eternal impact? How much religious activity are

we doing that We've deceived ourselves in believing that it's

advancing the Kingdom and making eternal significance, when so much

of that time it's our own personal desire, doing spiritual

acts that aren't His best nor his will for our life.

We need to get before the Lord and say, Lord,

examine me, try me, test me, Like David did if

we're going to be men and women after his own heart,

then ministering unto him and being in that secret place,

not just peering through the door and go, oh, look,

that's where the power comes from. No setting office up

in there, setting your bedroom up in there, living a

life of intimacy in there, being like Joshua. When Moses left,

Joshua stayed behind and stayed in the presence of the Lord.

From day one. He was trying to get a a priest,

a priesthood that was captivated by his presence and would

not move unless the cloud moved or the fire moved.

But he's on the move, literally, the rising lion. The

lion is on the move, and he is roaring. The

water tables in this nation are rising in this moment.

The glory train is moving, the outpouring is happening, and

right now there are people out in front of the

Body of Christ going, come on, let's go. But we

have a choice. We have a choice whether or not

we're gonna get on that train. Jesus never begged anybody

to follow him. He said, unless you eat my body

and drink my blood, you don't have life. And so

many people left him and guess what. He didn't turn

around and beg and plead and prad and go, oh,

send the entire pastoral team after them, No, because he

knew when they're on the run, you can't run fast enough.

Am I saying? Don't be pastoral?

No?

So that's what you just heard. Cast that out in

Jesus' name. But my point is, as a leader, and

every one of you are called to be a leader

and your own metron of influence, you're supposed to get

out in front of people and say, this is the mission,

this is where we're going. You are not bosses. You're

not supposed to be pushing them. You're supposed to be going, hey,

this way, let's go. You're pioneers. I'm a preach to

this side. But the word for ministering to the Lord,

the primitive route, means to attend as a menial or

worshiper figuratively, to contribute to minister, unto serve and wait on.

This is our primary job with our relationship with the Lord.

We're to be waiting on him, serving him, ministering to him.

So are you ministering to the Lord or are you

ministering to man? The true test is when you do

all of these things and no one acknowledges it. What

stirs in here? What's going on inside when no one

says a word for the last six months of you

ministering to the Lord. Because if you were ministering to

the Lord for the last six months, you're following Jesus

and not a man. And it doesn't matter what they

say or don't say, because your eyes are fixated on

the author and finisher of your faith, and come hell

or high water, you're following him and you're gonna hear

well done, my good and faithful servant, because that's what matters.

You're ministering for the audience of one and not many. Man.

We got to get this, y'all. It's so easy to

rely on all these other things. It's so easy to

allow all these tools.

We have.

To be a counterfeit glory, to be a counterfeit move

of his spirit, Like, oh, look look at all these

people following me. Listen, say one thing online they don't like,

and they'll stab you in the spiritual back on social

media as fast as they hit the like button. Jesus

didn't die for a virtual church. He died for the

literal people. And behold a woman of the city who

was a sinner. When she learned that he was reclining

at table in the pharisees house, brought an alabaster flask

of ointment, and, standing behind him at his feet weeping,

she began to wet his feet with her tears, and

wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his

feet and anointed them with ointment. Now, when the Pharisee

who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, Ah,

this dude thinks he's a prophet. He would have known

who and what sort of woman this is who's touching him,

for sheesus sinner. And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon,

I have something to say to you. And he answered,

say it, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors,

one owed five hundred denari and the other fifty. When

they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now,

which of them will love him more? And he said

to him, Uh, the one I suppose for whom he

canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you've

actually judged rightly. Then, turning toward the woman, he said

to SI, do you see this woman. I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet, but she

has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them

with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from

the time I came in, she's not ceased to kiss

my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil,

but she's anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell

you her sins, which are many, are forgiven. She loved much,

but he who's forgiven little loves little. And he said

to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who are

at the table with him begin to say among themselves,

who is this who even forgives sins? And he said

to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

I want to tell you, if you find yourself this

morning as believing that you were forgiven little, you don't

have a clue what your sin did. Because every single

person in this room, if he were to count our sins,

no one could stand. Every one of us would be

eternally separated in hell, which is the holding tank until

the lake of fire. There is no annihilation, There is

no universalism. Jesus is the way the truth in the life.

No one comes to the Father, except through him and

him alone. If there was any other way into heaven,

then he died in vain. And we don't have a

good father. We've got a very torturous father. Then that

enjoys torture. And that is not the case. There is

no such thing of annihilation. You don't cease to exist.

You will live eternally forever. And it's not his will

that any perish, but all come to repentance. Listen these universalism, annihilation,

all of the things, gnosticism, All of these things are

doctrines of demons by seducing spirits that have come into

the body of Christ. And you better be in the

words so you don't get seduced. We have to hold

the plumbline of his word. We've got to hold the

plumb line. And we're entering into days that you better

have your forehead like flint. You better have thick skin

and a soft heart and become unoffendable. And when people

come at you all sideways and crazy, you keep your

love on, not your thump on Luke ten twenty seven,

And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all

your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

See right now, we've got somebody working in the nursery

keeping their love on you. Hear that, y'all. I believe

wholeheartedly the way we are loving others is actually a

true measurement of how we're loving God. And I don't

know about you. Some days I feel like I do

good and some days and there's a commercial. Some days

you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't, or whatever,

something along those lines. There are days we all have

those days. We all have those days where we go

into intercessory whining. We all have those days where I

have quit a hundred times and I have restarted a

hundred times. Even John was like, hey, go ask Jesus,

is he really the one? Is he really the one

we're to look for? Is there still another one? This

is literally after he sees the Holy Spirit descending like

a dove and the audible voice of the Father, and

he goes, is he the one? Because he's fixing to

get his head taken off and he's having a moment

of doubt. Y'all. It says that perplexed times of trying

will come on the earth. Perplexity of nations the nations

are in perplexity right now, in this moment, right now,

we have no idea because I guess what I ran

still attacking Israel and the moment. If they do anything

to any of our bases, then now we're escalating things.

And if you live in the fear of the unknown,

you're never gonna have peace if you don't understand the

end of this book and that God is sovereign and

his sovereign hand is over these nations. Hit the heart

of the kings, in the hand of the Lord. Y'all,

we have a free will. He gives us a choice.

But make no mistake, he is not out of control.

He is so sovereign that your will doesn't even violate

his sovereignty. Get in the secret place every morning. I

don't care if it's y'all again, if you fall into

the trap that thinking. If I don't spend sixty minutes

undisturbed every single morning at this exact time, I am unspiritual.

No.

We read in scripture where Jesus and the disciples are

exhausted and He's like, boys, come on, let's go. And

they get there and guess what the crowd caught wind

of where they were headed. There wasn't Fox News, there

wasn't social media. Somehow they still caught wind. And they

get there, and then Jesus is there and the boys

and they're exhausted. I bet you Peter had a trigger finger.

I bet you he was like, Lord, can I please?

Probably not, I just like that illustration. And what happens.

Jesus said that he had compassion on the people, for

they were like sheep without a shepherd. And even though

he and the disciples were absolutely exhausted and needed to

break kneaded downtime, needed to eat, he ministered to the

masses in that moment. See, the ways of the Holy

Spirit don't make sense when you're not walking in the spirit.

And even then sometimes we're left scratching our heads. But

the only way you're going to get well acquainted with

Jesus is by being in that secret place, by becoming

the one that breaks your own jar of oil. Lord,

what do you want me to pray about today? Lord?

What's your will? Because you told me that anything I

ask according to your will, it is done. That's why

I can give thanks before it comes. So start praying

according to his will and give thanks in all things

and everything you're praying. Guess what, according to his will happens.

So he gives you a seed. Here's your answer. You

got a bag of seeds. Every day. You're like a farmer.

You're either sowing to life or sowing to destruction. You

don't like your harvest. Change your bag. One's called life,

one's called corruption. Change your seed, and those seeds are

what's coming out of your mouth. Life and death and

the power of the tongue allow him to extract the

poison from the tongue. James three. It's so easy for

us to get flustered with each other, y'all listen. It

takes about three minutes to hang out with somebody before

you bump into their process. You know when sparks fly,

it's when my immaturity hits your immaturity, and then we're

arrogantly going to figure out who's more immature. Boom conflict.

That's not the iron sharpin's iron that we want wrong sparks, folks,

are y'all with me? Now? The church that was an Antioch,

there were certain prophets and teachers Barnabas Simon, who was

called Niger, Lucius of Syreene Mann and who had been

brought up with Herod the tree the yes, I can't

spit that out. Let me speak in tongues for a second.

We'll go on the tree trarch yep, can't say it.

And Saul and and they ministered to the Lord and fasted.

Now here it is, and they ministered to the Lord.

What were the prophets and teachers doing in Antioch? They

were ministering to the Lord and fasting. And the Holy

Spirit said, now separate to me, Barnabas and Saul for

the work for which I've called them. Then, having fasted

and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. Y'all,

if you don't start with ministering to the Lord, then

you're not gonna be laying hands on the right people.

You're gonna start looking at people to fill a spot

rather than what God's called that person to do. And

then when you put people in things that they were

never called to do, the very first thing that happens

to them is they burn out and they don't stick

with it because they know they weren't called to it.

And then you do have some folks that are legitimately

have zero perseverance or work ethic and when it gets hard,

they bail. That's reality Samuel. For Samuel two eighteen and nineteen,

Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with

a linen ephod and his mother used to make him

make for him a little robe and take it to

him each year when she sent each year when she

went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

They guestimate that Samuel he had to have his word established,

is what scripture says in his tongue before he was

lent to the Lord. So potentially anywhere from three to

five years of age. So let three years old, Samuel

is beginning to learn how to minister to the Lord.

Do you know he's the only prophet apart from Jesus

that it said none of the words that he spoke

fell to the ground. Specifically says that. And he was

in the temple with Eli ministering to the Lord at

age three. It says his mother lent him to the

Lord because the Lord opened her womb. He was okay, Lord,

here's Samuel. And then the Lord blessed her again because

she was willing to lend him to the Lord. And

every year here's his little three year old robe. Here's

his little four year old robe. Think about her heart,

because at three years old, he's in the temple learning

how to minister to the Lord, and she doesn't spend

time with them. His words established, and he's with the Lord,

and she comes with that little robe she sowed four

years old, five years old, six years old, seven years old,

eight years old. Every year as they went up to

do a sacrifice, she'd bring him a new robe. Y'all.

Salvation is free, but intimacy costs, and it's not fair

for people to preach a gospel that doesn't cost. Salvation

is free, but if you want to get close to him,

it's gonna cost you something. It's gonna cost you saying

no to all these fleshly desires because you want to

go minister to the Lord. It's going to cost you

something to say. You know what, y'all, go ahead, I'm

gonna stay in the secret place for a little longer.

Joshua could have been wondering what in the world's gonna

happen with Moses as he leaves the as he leaves

the tent, what am I gonna miss out? But yet

the presence is right there in front of them and

every one of us every day we wake up. You

have the full potential to have church with the Lord,

just you and him, by yourself, in that secret place,

with no one around, no one knowing what your right

hand or your left hand is doing, and you're passionately

pursuing him. You're crying out, Lord, show me your ways

that I'll know you. I don't just want words on

a book. I don't want a faith that doesn't have power.

I don't want a relationship that doesn't change things. I

don't want to talk about you and then see nothing.

I want to live a life of sacrifice that has

fire on me so that when I'm minister to others,

Heaven backs me up. This is the pursuit, but it

cost us. It's not cheap, it's not free. He bled,

He bled, Heaven went bankrupt. He bled for us not

to play church, not to play religion, not to look

impressively anointed to other people. He paid a price to

bring you in because he called you a daughter, he

called you a son, and the number one thing he

was after was you, not what you're doing for him

for Samuel. Three to one. Now the boy Samuel was

ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and

the word of the Lord was rare in those days.

There was no frequent vision, y'all. I'm gonna tell you

right now, the word of the Lord is way more

rare in this hour than you think. I want to

challenge you. Go take these prophetic words that everybody's giving online,

that are self promoted, intergalactic international apostolic prophets to the world.

Go take these words and test them. Test these words.

It says that two or three prophets speak in way

what they say. So much of this stuff is nothing

more than Christian witchcraft at best. A lot of it's

nothing more than political forecasting with the name of Jesus

on it. There's a purging happening in the church. There's

a purging and a pruning happening with the elders in

the body of Christ, with the leaders and the Body

of Christ and man made ministries are burning up up

because he's after the authentic. He's after the no names

that don't care if they have a name, because they

know he didn't. It says he his reputation, He made

himself of no reputation. So if we're really saying, hey, Lord,

I'm taking up my cross daily. I'm following you every

morning I wake up. Jesus said he didn't come to

be ministered to, but to minister and offer his life

at ransom. Y'all, we wouldn't have marriage problems if we

were loving each other the way Jesus loves us. We

wouldn't have so many marriages on the brink of divorce

if husbands were loving their wives like Christ loved the

church and actually laid their lives down. Y'all, It's high

time that we let him prune us. Don't just get

next to the fire. I had a dream this week,

and I don't remember a lot of the dream, but

I just know there was this big, massive fire in

front of me, and everywhere I went, the fire went

before me. And I was like, Lord, don't let this

be a soulish desire. Let this become reality, because the

Holy Spirit came with what we were baptized with what

the Holy Spirit and fire his fire, it says, Our

God is an all consuming fire. So don't get next

to the fire, get in it, say Lord, purify me

like silver, which is literally purified seven times. I was

watching a video that this lady went to it, went

and watched a silversmith to see how the process was done.

Because of that reading that scripture about your faith being

much more precious than silver, and she asked the question,

how do you know when the silver's purified? Because you

can go too far with it. He goes, Oh, that's

easy when I see my reflection in it. How do

I know when this trial's over? Jesus, that's easy, justin

when I see myself and you when no one's around,

When no one's around and it's just you and the Lord.

What's happening when you wake up? Are you thinking about him?

Are you thinking about all the things you need to

do before you go to bed? What's captivating your mind

is that, Lord, speak to me. Lord, speak to me

in the night. Lord, show me what the enemy doesn't

want me to see. Lord, Draw me closer to you. Lord,

Purify me and mature me so I can walk in

a level of authority and power that you desire for

me to walk in. But I know you can't give

it to me right now, because it would kill me.

It's the day in and day out, waking up and

saying yes, Jesus, one more day. Some of y'all are

so fried. Some of y'all are exhausted from your healing journeys.

Some of y'all may not even give a crap about

your healing journey. Let's get real, but for those of

you that are tired, just one more day. We're not

promised tomorrow, we're promised today. It says, don't boast yourself

of tomorrow, because you don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring.

You have today. Today's the day of salvation. Today's the

day that you lay it all on the line. Today's

the day that you get to advance the kingdom. Today's

the day that you get to see that guy go

or that woman go in front of you that the

Lord has been telling you to share the Gospel with,

but you've allowed the voice of fear to be louder

than the Holy Spirit. Today's the day for those things

to change, not tomorrow. Today. Today's the day for you

to pick up that phone call, suck up your pride,

and go after reconciliation. Today the day to actually get

honest with somebody next to you about the thoughts that

have been going through your head that you're really not

excited about. You're actually tormented. But the pride of life

has stopped you from getting vulnerable, because what will they

think anything we keep in darkness, we empower by hell.

But the moment we bring those things into the light

because we're children of light and live a life in

the light, then guess what it diffuses it. I tell

them myself all the time, because I don't want the

enemy to have anything against me, to be able to

use against me. I want it all the light. This

is me hello on stage, off the stage, on the

same goofball moments on stage as I am off the stage,

I am what you get to the best of my ability,

because I want to live a raw, authentic life before

the Lord. And it does no one any good. It

does no one any good to see people faking it.

It doesn't because all of a sudden I create this

superman Christian persona that's not reality, and people that God's

tugging on their hearts to surrender their lives and walk

with the Lord and even full time ministry. If I

have this big fake I've arrived and nothing touches me.

People get discouraged. Paul said, follow me as I follow Jesus.

If you don't like me, that's okay. I don't want

you to like me because I'm who I am and

you have an issue with it. If you don't like

me because I'm being fake, that's even worse. So if

you don't like me this morning, that's all right. I

still love you. I choose to love you, and that

is on. It's your problem if you don't like me.

I mean that in the most pastoral way possible. But

my heart every time I get up here is that

lives are changed for him, That this region burns a

little bit brighter because we're touched by his fire and

he purifies us. That your faith is stronger when you

walk out of here because his word was delivered. Regardless

of who's teaching, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the

word of God. I want you to be challenged. I

want some of you to have Pastor Justin's sermon for dessert,

not fried Justin. You know, like I hope you're challenged.

I hope every person that comes up here and teaches

every time, every one of you gets challenged in some way,

because if you're not being challenged, you're not growing. I

hope you're like man, he is crazy. I don't believe that,

and then you go get in the word and search

it out. All right, is Mike up there? Okay, this

is my ear guitar. If I can get the pair

of teams to come up. You know, y'all want one day,

and it's gonna be way quicker than we think. One day,

we're all going to stand before the Lord individually and

we're going to give an account individually for our lives.

And I can promise you you're not going to be worried

about the remodel that you never got done, or the

jeep rubicon that you didn't trade up for. Sorry I'm

getting personal, or fill in the blake, But what is

gonna matter? Oh man, I wish I totally felt that

nudge three years ago at Starbucks when I felt that

guy was depressed and wanted to kill himself, and I

never said anything. One word from the Lord can change

a person's life. You know, in the August, there'll be

nine years that the church. The church will be nine

years old in August. And do you know how many

times we've had people come that were a handful of

times people were gonna come and go home and kill themselves,

and we literally had words of knowledge released about suicide,

and they did not, and they got delivered. I've spent

hours after service fighting for people that couldn't fight for

themselves in that area, y'all. It's so worth it. He

is worth it. Let your tears wash his feet. Let

your prayers be an incense to him. May you live

a life that causes book books of remembrance to be

written because you have this radical, fiery love that won't

burn out. Father, would you just continue to pour out? Lord?

Would you make us so sensitive to you, Hm, that

we don't grieve you, that we don't quitch you, Lord,

that we make ourselves of no reputation, that our goal

is to make you famous, Lord, to see your glory

pour out, to see the lives of others touched by

your spirit, to preach the only eternal gospel of the Kingdom. Lord,

to live our lives like drink offerings, being willing to

be poured out into any container of your desire. So Lord,

may we walk in your fire. Lord, May we walk

in your spirit and be washed by you and Father.

Please forgive us for every idle word that we have

ever spoken. Lord, Please forgive us for every word of

gossip or slander or accusations. Lord, forgive us for every

time we did not present you accurately. Lord, Job's friends

did not present you accurately, and it sounded amazing, it

was truth, but it wasn't the truth of Job, and

you would not hear them. You had Job intercede for

them because your anger burned against them for not presenting

you correctly. Father, I pray that that would cause the

fear of the Lord, and that we would not claim

to hear you so flippantly, that we would not claim

to say what you're saying so flippantly, but that we

would speak your words Lord, with the fear of the

Lord and with humility and love. So Father, meet with

us this week. Lord. We would be led by your

spirit and not our soul. We would stay sensitive to

the doves leading draw us deep this week in the

secret place, and may we truly break open those alabaster

jars of perfume. Lord, in Jesus' name.

Thank you for listening.

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