Pastor Appreciaton Day

But God is good, God is faithful.

How many of you know God's faithful?

And well, this is like one of the second pastor's days

that I preach.

I didn't think I'd be preaching a pastor's day,

but here we are.

And as I was studying or as I, with me,

when somebody asked me to preach,

God gives me a thought immediately

and I usually go with that thought.

I never try to doubt the Lord

because I believe that's the way He speaks to you

in a thought, giving you this thought for this message.

But when I started to study it,

I felt that this is actually a message

that your dad should be preaching.

This is what I thought when I started studying this,

this portion of the scripture.

You're gonna find out in a minute.

But then I said, the Lord said,

no, I chose you to speak this.

I chose you to speak this.

So if I could speak this message,

it's from one colleague to another.

It's from one friend to another,

to the first family here at this church.

And right there as you're seated,

if you can go to the book of 2 Timothy chapter three

and 12 through 14.

And I'm very grateful as you're finding

this scripture that my wife, Roseanne, is with me.

She's my rock.

She keeps me in line.

So I appreciate her.

Bishop Andy Lopez said that she's going to heaven

solely based on the fact that she married me.

So I said, at least you're getting in.

Well, I'll be following you, honey.

So I appreciate her for just being there,

being the rock that she is.

2 Timothy chapter three, verse 12 through 14 says,

indeed all who desire to live a godly life.

How many of you desire to live a godly life?

Well, in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

You got quiet.

Right?

Verse 13 says, while evil people and imposters

will go on from bad to worse,

if you're waiting for the world to get better, it's not.

It's going from bad to worse, the scripture says.

Deceiving and being deceived,

but as for you, continue in what you have learned

and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

Next chapter, chapter four of 2 Timothy

and verse five says this.

And as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering,

do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Why don't we pray?

Heavenly father, I come before your throne of glory, Lord,

just thanking you for this opportunity to speak,

to give you all the honor and to give you all the glory.

And bless my lips of clay, mighty God,

use me as a vessel of honor and not a vessel of dishonor.

In the precious name of Jesus, I pray.

Hallelujah.

As I begin to study it, it feels like a bit intrusive

to read this intimate letter because this is what it was,

a mentor to a mentee.

It's almost kind of too personal.

It's like leaning down and listening in

on a dying father's whisper of a few last words to his son.

And he knows he's about to die in execution

for the crime of what?

Practicing an outlawed faith.

This is what he was about to die for.

Practicing an outlawed faith.

The world ain't gonna like it when you stand up for Jesus.

They'll stand up for anything else and everything else,

but try to take a stand for Jesus.

And it almost seems like it's an outlawed faith.

But I'm here to tell you, Pastor Jacob,

keep standing for Jesus.

Don't give up the fight.

Don't give up preaching.

Don't give up teaching.

Stand on what you've learned on.

So he writes this one last letter to a young man

he loves like a son, to Timothy,

the pastor of the church in Ephesus.

And he says in Timothy chapter four, six and seven,

I'm ready to be poured out like a drink offering.

And the time of my departure has come.

And he said, I have fought the good fight

and I have finished the race and I have kept the faith.

I don't think the Lord has done with me yet,

but I can tell you that I'm ready to keep fighting

the good fight of faith.

And as co-laborers in the gospel,

I wanna encourage you that if you don't think

nobody's by your side,

I'm by your side in the city of Morgan Hill.

We're praying for Mountain View.

We're praying for all the churches in this sector

and all the churches in our district

that we don't lose sight of what God has shown us

and what we have learned.

It's time for the apostolic church to stand up

and say, I live for Jesus and I die for Jesus.

And I am not ashamed of the gospel.

There's a lot of things that you can be ashamed of,

but the gospel of Jesus Christ is not one of them.

And Paul knows he's being persecuted at this time

and he's facing something that after he's gone

might spread like a wildfire throughout the Roman Empire.

And what was that?

Hurting Christians everywhere,

especially leaders like Timothy.

Like Timothy.

The devil don't play.

I'm telling you, he will lie and he will wait.

And he will wait for you to slip up

just that one little bit.

And once you slip up on you, he's pouncing.

Oh, he's patient too.

He'll wait and he'll wait and you might think, uh-uh.

So this is what the apostle Paul is trying to tell Timmy.

Watch your faith.

Guard what you have been taught.

Don't stray away from the doctrine.

He doesn't want Timothy to give in to fear

and give up the faith.

Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace

that God has given you in what?

In Christ Jesus.

We can't do this on our own.

You might think you can walk on your own, talk on your own,

live this life for God on your own,

but you ain't doing it without the grace of Jesus Christ.

You ain't doing it without the Holy Ghost.

The Bible says that the spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak.

And I like it the way it says in Spanish,

la carne esta enferma.

I'm practicing my Spanish.

I like in Spanish, it doesn't translate that way in English.

Spirit is weak with the, you know, the spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak.

But in Spanish, it translates to the flesh is sick.

And we can't live this life

without the grace of Christ Jesus.

Paul's main point to Timothy in this book here

is never to be ashamed to tell others about the Lord

with the strength that God gives you.

And then the next thing he says, be ready.

Ready for what?

To suffer with me.

Timothy wasn't afraid to roll up his sleeves.

You got a pastor who's not afraid to roll up his sleeve,

but how about the congregation?

Are you behind him?

You ready to grow this congregation

because I know it's going to take work.

I know you got a pastor who's willing and ready to do it,

but he needs leaders.

He needs laity that he can count on

to be right there by his side.

I don't know about you, but pastor,

I'm right there with you.

And then where are they?

Where's everybody at?

Right, and I know sometimes it feels lonely,

but I know that God is with us.

And if God is with us, who can be against us?

Never be ashamed to tell others

about what the Lord has done with the strength

that God has given and be ready to suffer

for the sake of the good news.

People don't want to hear the good news.

And I started doing it in the church.

I started to say, who wants to invite somebody to church?

Everybody raise their hands and stand up.

We're going to pray for you.

We pray for everything else.

We pray for God to give us a car.

We pray for God to give us a good bank account.

We pray for God to give us the house on the hill.

Why don't we pray so that the Lord

will help us invite somebody to church?

Why do I say that?

Because there's two kingdoms at war.

And they're both fighting for the soul.

There's the kingdom of the Lord,

and then there's the kingdom of heaven.

And God's surely not going to let go of you.

And Satan doesn't want to release his grip on you.

So it takes the church to be here in the midst.

It takes a man of God to be here in the midst.

It takes, oh, I feel the Holy Ghost in this place.

We got a bad, we're not just here to feel the goosebumps.

The music is nice and the music is great,

but I want to roll up my sleeves

and I want to tell somebody about Jesus

because we need to win the city of Mountain View

for the honor and for the glory of the Lord.

Some of you members see your pastor getting weary.

You better start to hold up his hands.

You better start praying the right prayer.

Pray the right prayer for your pastor.

2 Timothy 3 and 1, you should know this, Timothy.

This is what he's telling him.

You should know this, that in the last days,

there's going to be difficult times.

There's going to be difficult times.

Nobody's going to want to go to church.

I don't know about here.

We got some people who don't show up to church

for a couple months and then come right in like,

you're in my seat.

He ain't been here in two months.

And what are you going to do?

Because we want to win people and we want to be merciful,

but at the same time, we got to tell him,

hey, missing this much service is not good.

Look at, in verses two through five

of the third chapter of 2 Timothy,

there's 19 characteristics of manmade

during the last days that are given.

I ain't got time to go all through them.

So if you need some homework, go check out these 19 things.

They're going to be lovers of their own selves.

Starts to name all kinds of things

about the characteristics of man or this flesh.

I can guarantee you this flesh didn't want to get up

and go to church today.

I'm going to be honest,

I didn't want to get up and go to church today.

But the flesh doesn't want to have anything

to do with Jesus.

This is why he says in Ephesians 5,

walk in the spirit that you don't fulfill

the desires of the flesh.

And he says, there are going to be difficult times.

You know, if you study this,

you notice he doesn't even mention anything

about the devil in here.

He's just talking about us.

We go along blaming everyone.

I don't want to go to church because the devil,

the devil's not even here, I'm sorry.

He's not omnipresent.

He's not omnipotent.

He can't be in Mountain View and Morgan Hill

at the same time.

Only God can be that.

So chances are it's this person that you're looking right at

in the mirror that doesn't want to do anything

for the honor and for the glory of God.

And if Mountain View is going to succeed,

City Light is going to succeed,

pastor needs you as a church.

You can't have him and the first lady doing everything.

Doesn't work like that, right?

This is why we're leaders.

Check out these things.

In verse 11, Paul excludes in the fact

that the Lord had delivered him.

He says, Timothy, I've been through some things.

You've been with me at Listeria

and you've been with me at all kinds of places.

And you see how I was persecuted.

You've seen the things that I've endured, Timothy.

But then he says, just as God has delivered me,

he's going to deliver you.

Just as God was with me, he's going to be with you.

And I'm here to tell you, Pastor Jacob,

just as God has been with me, he's going to be with you.

Sister Cherie, just as God has been with us

through difficult times when we thought

that we couldn't walk on anymore.

When we thought that maybe we made a mistake

in taking the pastorship, it's no mistake.

God has you right where he has you.

You've endured the things that you've endured

so that we could learn how to be faithful in God.

What does Peter say?

Don't think it's strange when you go through a fiery trial.

Don't give up when we go, temptation is something different.

Tribulation is something different.

That's what we put ourselves through.

But when the trials from the Lord,

what I'm looking, what am I going to learn from this God?

I know you're putting me through this for a reason

is so that I can grow my faith.

You know, you got to grow your faith

before you grow the church.

Why am I saying that?

Because sometimes you look out and the chairs are empty.

And not everybody's on time.

Hello.

So you got to grow your faith.

You got to encourage yourself like David.

I'm not doing this for the people.

I'm doing this for the honor and for the glory of the Lord.

I'm doing this so that we can go out into the highways

and into the byways and reach somebody

for the honor and for the glory of the Lord.

There is a reminder to us that we are not promised

freedom from difficulties.

That's why I don't like it when they tell newcomers,

don't worry, everything's gonna be all right.

You ain't ever gonna go through anything again.

What?

We find ourselves chapter three, verse 12.

Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ,

you will be persecuted.

You're gonna be persecuted.

Persecution is an integral part of a devout Christian life.

And Jesus said in John 16, 33,

I have said things to you that you might have peace

because in the world you will have tribulation,

but take heart, I have overcome the world.

If anybody knew about persecution,

if anybody knew about going through things,

it was the master.

And he says, if you wanna take my yoke upon you,

don't worry, I'll make the yoke easy,

but you're gonna go through some things,

you're gonna have to suffer for my name sake.

Suffer for my name sake.

And it's a good thing that Timothy is reminded of this,

otherwise when he's called to go through deep waters.

I don't know about you,

but I don't wanna stay in the shallow end.

I wanna get into some deeper things.

What does Ezekiel say that some of us started off

at the ankles and then the water went to the knees

and then it went to the waist and then it went up

to the chest and then all of a sudden you're swimming

in waters that you can't touch the floor anymore.

And pastor, that's when the Lord has you.

When you can't touch the floor anymore

and you're just going with the flow of the river

and you're going wherever God directs you,

if he directs you here, he directs you there.

See, the reason why we don't like to jump in waters to swim

is because we can't touch the ground anymore

and we're not in control of what we're doing.

But I'm telling you, the Lord, Bishop Rodriguez,

you confirmed it, the Lord has you right here at this spot,

at this hour, because there's gonna be some waters

that you're gonna have to not be able to touch the ground

because God's got you and he's taking you in a direction

that you never thought possible.

You've been through some things

and you've learned how to keep the faith.

You have fought the good fight, you persevered,

you endeared, now it's time to.

I don't know, look at this building, it's half empty.

I look at it as a spool

because that's the way the Lord sees it.

The fact is, is that persecution is inevitable

for all who desire to live in a godly manner.

And the reason for this persecution is simple.

It's simple, it's simple.

If you don't hear anything, hear this.

A godly life exposes the wickedness of others.

I'll say it again, a godly life exposes

the wickedness of others.

You ever go to some family houses that don't have Jesus

and all of a sudden you walk in and they start to,

they start to disappear?

What happened to so-and-so?

Well, you know what they got uncomfortable

that the Holy Ghost walked in.

Oh yeah, devil, that's the way city light

is gonna make you uncomfortable

because we got the power, we got the Holy Ghost.

And it's not to make somebody feel bad,

it's to make somebody, well,

they're a little bit different.

You ever had anybody tell you that at your job?

Hey, I don't know what, I don't know what,

but there's something different about you.

When you walk in, I got a sense

that everything is gonna,

they're sensing the godly life that you have.

And all of a sudden they begin to compare their life

to the goodness of Jesus

and it just doesn't seem to fit right anymore

and they gotta ask you what's going on?

What is with you?

And we don't like being exposed.

All right, none of us like being exposed.

That's somebody come up to me, the pastor,

why are you preaching on me?

I haven't been here in two months

and all of a sudden you're talking about me.

I said, I'm sorry, I studied this message two months ago.

If it's getting you, that's the power of the Holy Ghost.

I'm telling you, a godly life

exposes the wickedness of others.

Instead of repenting,

instead of repenting of their ungodliness

and turning to Christ, they seek,

I'm gonna say this slowly, cause I'm excited.

When I get excited, I talk fast, right?

They seek to destroy the one who has shown up,

shown them up for what they really are.

That's why people are gonna lie on you, pastor.

That's why they're gonna pick on your family.

They're gonna try to persecute you,

make it like you're alone in this thing,

like you don't have anybody.

But that's a lie from the pits of hell,

because you are a godly man.

You're a godly woman of Christ

that had been called to save this city.

And because of that, people don't like you.

The world is not gonna like you.

And try to talk about you and try to blast you on Facebook

and whatever else is out there, Instagram and Snapchat.

Don't let them talk about your pastor.

If you start talking about your pastor, stop right there.

You wanna continue to be friends with me?

That's it.

Don't say nothing more.

Don't curse yourself by talking about the man of God.

Don't even agree with the person that's talking about.

Don't even matter.

If the man of God is wrong, God will deal with him.

It's not up to us.

But you protect your pastor.

You protect the first family.

You protect the first lady.

They got enough to deal with.

And he says in 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 2,

he says, I charge you in the presence of God

and in the presence of Christ Jesus,

who is to judge the living dead

and by his appearing and his kingdom.

What does he say in verse 2, chapter 4?

Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season,

reprove, rebuke, exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

This is what the mentor tells the mentee.

First thing he says, what?

Preach the word? Preach the word.

I don't know if you remember Bishop Rodriguez

when he first handed us the church

and we had to move out of the building,

we rented right there at the Community Cultural Center.

And you think everything's gonna be easy

when you first start.

Yeah, they're beating to the pastors, they'll be here.

We called a Bible study that we still have to this day

on a Thursday night and only me and my wife showed up.

And she said, well, what are we gonna do?

I said, sit down, I got a word.

We're gonna keep going.

She says, why are we gonna keep going?

Can we just get some coffee, do something?

I says, no, because if we stop and somebody shows up,

oh, they will blast you.

Oh, pastor called that he wasn't even there

and I showed up a half hour late and everybody,

no, that, uh-uh.

I'm not gonna give nobody room to talk about my God.

Oh, you ain't hearing me right now.

I said, I'm not gonna give nobody room

to talk about my God.

I gotta preach the word in season, out of season

if there's only one person here,

if there's only two persons here.

We started our friendship groups

and one of them got the bright idea,

well, I only had one show up, so I'm gonna merge a group.

I said, don't do that.

We gotta preach to that one.

That was your time, I told the leader,

that was your time to be intimate and to be small, to be.

If nobody shows up,

you better start preaching to yourself then.

I had a pastor named Pastor Richard Mendez.

Where's Josh?

I played the bass for many years.

Josh, I showed up to church

and none of the musicians showed up.

So I went and sat down on the bench.

Pastor Mendez comes up from the back,

what are you doing, fat boy?

And I was a lot skinnier then.

I said, I'm sitting down.

He says, why are you sitting down for?

Why ain't you playing?

I said, the keyboard player ain't there,

the organ player ain't there, the drummer ain't there,

there ain't no singers, what do you want me to do?

He said, I want you to get up there and play that bass.

I said, why?

He said, is it for your glory or is it for God's glory?

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

So Ricky, I got up, I started playing the bass,

and then he said, what are you doing?

I said, playing the bass.

He said, why ain't you singing?

Why ain't you singing?

I'm like.

Come on.

He was teaching me in season,

when there's musicians you better play,

and without musicians you better play.

If you broke one string, you better play.

If you broke two strings, you better play.

And if you break all four of them on that bass,

you better start clapping your hands and do something, boy.

I mean, we gotta preach it when we're supposed to preach it.

It doesn't matter who's there, who doesn't there.

This is for God's glory.

He says, preach it and preach it

the way that I tell you to preach it.

Don't sugarcoat it.

We got too many sugarcoated messages now.

Too many sugarcoated messages,

and the world is going to hell in a handbasket

while we're trying to preach something that,

you know, I'm not gonna name any names,

but there's a church that said they're taking Jesus

out of Easter, because he might offend somebody.

I'm like, isn't he the reason for the season?

Oh, but you know, we're gonna take it out,

because we're not calling it, you know, Resurrection Sunday,

we're not calling it, none of that.

We don't wanna offend nobody.

Blessed are they that are not offended in me, Jesus said.

Don't get mad when the word hurts you, when it cuts you.

I mean, your pastor is here to guide you

to truth and eternal life.

Don't be upset the word that God give him for you.

It's for you.

Sometimes as a pastor, you gotta tell people of their faults.

This is what he tells them, be in season, out of season,

rebuke, exhort.

That's scriptural.

Do this work with all fervency of spirit.

Sorry, your pastor's not your friend.

He's here to guide you.

Sorry, your pastor's not your friend.

He's here to get you to heaven.

Could you imagine standing before the King

and the Kings and Lord of the Lords, Pastor Jacob,

why didn't you preach my word?

I did, God, I encouraged everybody.

Well, what about the rebuke, exhort?

What about telling them how?

How's that?

How's?

But then he must direct, encourage, quicken those

who begin to fall or to begin to get weary.

He has to persuade them with all his long suffering.

And I mean, as a pastor, you gotta be patient.

Patient with people, right?

Patient with people who are suffering.

Gotta smile sometimes when you wanna bite your teeth

and bite your tongue, right?

He must watch in all things.

This is what he tells to me.

You gotta be watchful in all things.

Watch over the souls who I've committed to your charge.

Pastor's gotta watch you, he's gotta watch his flock.

The sheep sometimes are led astray, right?

But the Bible says that he is the good shepherd.

That Jesus is the good shepherd.

And Paul says that he's given the opposite

of the pastures to be watchful for the sheep.

He told Peter, do you love me?

Yes, I love you, Lord.

Then feed my sheep.

He's gotta feed you, he's gotta take care of you,

he's gotta take care of this, he's gotta take people.

And you as a congregation, you gotta let him.

Because sometimes we're too stubborn headed.

And we think we know better than the pastor.

I tried that one time in my life.

But Ricky, he called us in the office and he says,

look it, is this okay?

He says, look it, service starts at seven o'clock.

You waltz in here at seven o'five, seven ten.

You could ask my wife, she's right here.

Well, I thought I was big and bad and married already.

I don't know about these guys.

But I'm married, I got a family, I got a wife, I have kids.

He said, so what?

You should be showing these younger ones how it is

to live a life of ministry being, why did I open my mouth?

Why did I say that?

But I thank God for the man of God that was watching for me.

It's not that we wanna be in your lives,

is that we can see things before they happen.

The Lord shows you, I mean, my God,

I was a young person in charge of the choir.

I said, if they didn't learn their part,

I'd send them home, go home, get out.

And this was recently.

Pastor said, you can't send them home.

I can and I will, you will not.

Oh yeah, God wasn't through with me yet.

I'm not the perfect, I had to learn, right?

I had to learn, right?

But I did learn that the pastor watches.

He watches for you.

A friend of mine said, I don't think Pastor Mendes loves me.

He's always yelling at me.

Then he called me up, he says,

well, I'll share my nickname with you.

He called me Sapo.

Sapo, I said, what?

He said, the pastor loves me.

I said, I told you that a month ago.

No, no, you don't understand.

I heard him praying for me.

I heard him praying for me.

I heard him talking about bless the family, bless his kids,

protect them, your pastor, he watches for you.

He prays for you.

Church, if you don't think that he does, believe me, he does.

You don't call him on a Sunday, he's sitting there wondering,

I wonder what happened.

Are they okay?

I don't know why they didn't call me.

I don't know why they didn't show up to Sunday,

but whatever it is, God bless them, protect them, help them.

You know their needs, not me, God.

Your pastor will watch for you.

And we sometimes think he's just being nosy.

He just trying to run my life.

He just, no, he's not.

God didn't call him to do that.

God called him to watch.

And then he tells Timothy, what we stated earlier,

count upon afflictions, endure them and make the best of them.

Pastor Jacob, make the best of them.

All the afflictions, everything that going through,

make the best of it.

God's got it all under control.

Pastor Jeff Arnold said, sometimes we need to learn

how to live with unfulfilled expectations.

God doesn't answer all of it.

He doesn't answer all of it.

He doesn't heal all the people that we pray for too.

That's his sovereign will.

We gotta learn how to accept that.

Sometimes he doesn't give us the building.

Sometimes he doesn't.

But that's no reason to quit.

Right?

And this is what the apostle Paul is telling Timothy,

that count and make the best of these afflictions,

be not discouraged by the difficulties that you meet with,

but bear them with the evenness spirit.

Endure the hardships. And one of the last things he tells them

is this, that he must remember his office

and discharge its duties.

He says, do the work of the evangelist.

Do the work of the evangelist.

The office of the evangelist will be your office.

The office of the evangelist was as the apostles,

the deputies, they were to water the churches,

these Timothy, they were to water the churches

that the apostle Paul had planted already.

And it was his duty to evangelize that city.

Look at it.

They were not settled pastors, but for some time,

they resided in and presided over the churches

that the apostles had planted till they were settled

under a standing ministry.

This was the work of Timothy that he was to take care of

some of the churches that the apostle Paul had planted.

And this is, Paul was writing to him,

I'm at the end of my life now.

I'm about to die in this prison.

And Timothy, I need you to take care of the church.

I need you to pastor this church, Timothy.

Do the work of the evangelist.

You have seen me in action.

And I say to you, Pastor Jacob, you have seen the things

that your father has gone through

and that your mother has gone through.

The things that they've had to endure.

And as a pastor's son, you've had to watch

how people not only attack the pastor,

but the family as well.

And you've seen some of the things

that they've had to endure.

You've seen some of the things that they have had to endure

since they've given up pastoring

and moved to a higher position within our organization.

This is why I felt, Bishop, maybe you should be preaching,

but the Lord said, no, this is for you to preach.

Although he's not my father, I've seen some of the things

that he's had to endure.

I've talked to him, oh, brother, I'm taking over

all the districts that you're in charge of

and then the church over here and then church over there.

I says, ooh, good God Almighty.

I thought I had problems.

But you've seen mentors and friends

and people that have pastored before you endure hardship.

We were just having a conversation earlier with them.

Like how did the older pastors deal with this situation?

He says, continue to do the work of the evangelists.

This is where we end.

This is where we end, 2 Timothy 4 and 5,

and that's where you be sober minded.

Don't let the enemy come in and cloud your judgment.

Sisters, don't let them cloud your judgment.

You're in the position that God give you

and work that position.

Work it in Jesus' name.

Don't let no sister in the church take your position.

You're the first lady.

Well, sometimes they ain't listening.

Well, get on them and get on them.

Hopefully none of you ministers try to take the position

of the pastor, you're gonna hear it.

God didn't, we all wanna be pastors until,

what did Mike Tyson say?

Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face.

Y'all wanna be the pastor until you're the pastor

and then all of a sudden you get punched in the face.

That's not for you.

That's his calling.

Don't get spiritual leprosy by doing something

in the temple that doesn't belong to you.

I think I can do better than my pastor.

No, you can't, because God didn't call you for that.

And if you'll go out and make your own church,

then I just pray that God has mercy upon you.

But your pastor is here.

I say, always be sober-minded.

How many of you seen your pastor endure?

How many of you have seen your pastor endure?

How many of you seen your pastor endure?

Endure suffering.

It doesn't always go right for us.

As soon as Bishop Rodriguez installed us,

as soon as he installed us,

they kicked me out of my house, Bishop.

They evicted me.

Get out.

And then you gotta stand up there in front of the church

and encourage the church.

And the enemy is messing with you,

attacking your children.

Children, he's gonna attack you as well.

But learn from what your mom and dad have taught you.

And then you gotta stand up there in front of the church

and encourage the church.

And learn from what your mom and dad have taught you.

Love the Lord.

Love the Lord.

With all your heart, watch them when trials come.

Watch them when they're being attacked,

how they respond to where I'm just gonna pray.

I'm just gonna pray.

I'm just gonna pray because I know God has us here

for a reason.

I'm gonna continue on in the faith.

I'm gonna work like the evangelists.

I'm gonna grow the church.

And I'm gonna fulfill my ministry.

And that's what the apostle Paul tells Timothy,

the pastor of Ephesus, he tells him,

fulfill your ministry.

Do the work that God has called you to do.