It’s not about the title it’s about the towel

That is so good to be here. And you know, I was praying

about tonight. I don't just turn up and, you

know, sort of grab a sermon. This will do because your lives

are too precious to Jesus to mess around with.

And I take it very seriously. I'm a gift to the body of Christ

and the Spirit of God is upon me and anointed me to preach good

news to the poor and to set the captive free.

And I was thinking about tonight's service and I wrote

this message out yesterday after yesterday afternoon.

So, Lord, what do you want to say tonight?

And, and, and, and I was asked a question by a young man once.

He said, Ray, what would a 75 year old say to his 25 year old?

I'm 75 years of age right now. I've got another 40 years left,

Amen. I won't know who I am or where

I'm going, but I'll be alive, Amen.

So it's a good question. What would my 75 year old say to

my 25 year old? And I read the start that only

one in 10 who start in the ministry in their 20s are still

ministering in their 70s. When I read that start, I, I

began to realize longevity in the ministry or longevity in

serving Jesus is under attack by the enemy.

And I started to think about that start and about that

question. And I started serving God in my

20s, and I'm still here in my 70s, still on fire for Jesus,

still passionately in love with Him.

Do I have some friends in the house that love Jesus with all

their heart here? I know, I know.

And so I began to think about that question and I began to

realize there's 84 reasons #1 just checking if you're awake

out there. But but I, there were three main

keys or principles that are on hindsight or operating in my

life. I'm not going to major on the

three. I'm just going to major on one.

But let me just mention the first two.

One of the main reasons why I'm still serving God in my 70s on

hindsight is because I've learned to negotiate transition.

And in our lives as we serving God, we will experience

transition in three ways. There is what I call sanctifying

transition. That's when the Holy Spirit is

daily changing us into the image of Christ.

Then you have seasonal transition and this is when you

have to transition through seasons.

Relationship could be seasonal, could be geographic, could be

ministerial. But when you learn to negotiate

transition in the seasons of your life.

And then if there's what I call sudden transition, when out of

the blue tragedy hits and you have to change, your whole world

is turned upside down and you have to transition.

So that's one of the areas I'm not going to go into that

tonight. Just throwing it out there.

Then the second one would be this.

I will never allow the river of God in me to turn into a canal

out of your innermost being. Jesus said will flow life

giving, grace filled, powerful, beautiful living water.

And he said, Ray, don't allow anyone or anything to turn that

river in you into a canal. And I stand here before you

tonight. I'm telling you something.

The river in me is widening. It's deepening.

It's getting more powerful than it was when I was in my 20s.

Man. I think I'm looking at a bunch

of rivers here tonight. Can I hear name any of this

house right here? And he said, and you know what,

there are a few things I said, Lord, what can turn the canal,

What can turn the river in me into a canal?

And he shared a few things with me.

The first one is religion that will that will shrink you down,

that will manipulate river water.

But the second one is the fear of man.

He said, Ray, don't allow the fear of people to shrink that

river into a canal. And, you know, to look at me,

you know, you think, oh, Ray preaching up there.

But I used to deal with a massive inferiority complex,

especially when it comes to comparison.

And I always wanted to be somebody else.

And I think it's the case with many of us here.

And I was a young evangelist. And, you know, my hero was

Reinhardt Bunker. Anybody heard of Reinhardt

Bunker? Reiner became a very good friend

of mine in his in in over the years.

But he was my hero. I used to listen to his messages

and I wanted to be like him. And one I didn't realize is that

I listened to him so much and wanted to be like him so much.

I started to speak in a German accent.

I'm flipping Welsh. I go down to the shop, Rory

Reiner in my head thinking of Reinhart and I go to the shop.

I said I want 4 lbs of potato. The woman would look at me.

What is wrong with you? You need to go to the doctor.

And so I, and you know the Lord said to me, Ray, I am not going

to anoint who you want to be and I'm not going to anoint who

others expect you to be. He said, I like you.

I said really, I like you, Ray, and I'm going to anoint who you

are, not who you want to be. And you know what?

I could care less. I mean, Pastor Ray McCauley,

I've preached in his church for over 30 years and in his

conferences. And I don't know whether Ray did

this on purpose, but twice he put me on to preach after TD.

Jakes, are you serious? The guys are walking

concordance. But you know what, with that

revelation, God likes me. God's anointed Ray Bevan just as

he is. And you know what?

I wasn't comparing. I wasn't afraid, just got up

there. I said, Lord, just flow through

me. Let this river flow out of me.

And and that's the you know what?

Listen, celebrate your uniqueness.

God's not going to annoy who you want to be.

So when you are fearing men or comparing yourself with others,

that river in you will shrink and shrink.

If you're still with me, say Amen here.

Great, I've got another 2 1/2 hours.

Watch this now. So no, but this is the one I

want to major on and this is the one.

This may not be like a real dynamic message or preach, but

the truth is incredible and it really has changed my life.

And, and I believe it's kept me in a place where God can use me.

And, and it's this principle #3 it's not about the title, it's

about the towel. And we know the story.

We're in the upper room. The disciples believe in Jesus

is about to overthrow the Roman Empire, set up a new Kingdom and

they are going to be the chief said they were going to be the

top knobs in the Kingdom. And they are arguing amongst

themselves about titles. I don't know what title I'm

going to have. I wonder what position Jesus is

going to put me in. And Jesus heard them and without

saying a word, he picks up a bowl and he picks up a towel.

And he said, guys, it's not about the title, it's about the

tie, the towel. And if you want to serve me, I

think that demonstration, he was showing his love.

He said this is what ministry is all about.

It's not desiring a title or an office.

It's about taking up the towel and washing people's feet.

Come on, somebody say Amen, Kia. And so, and I learned this

lesson early. I mean, I was in a rock band in

Wales in, in my little community I was famous with amongst 300

people. They all knew me.

But when I was in the swap and I got saved watching a film, I

didn't get saved in the church. I didn't know who Jesus was and

I'm in a movie. How a cinema watching a film

about the life of Jesus and the Holy Spirit said to me in the

cinema, 19 year old dope smoking sex symbol, why are you

laughing? So there I was and the Holy

Spirit said you see this man in this film, he is the end of your

search. And right there I got born again

in the cinema without knowing what born again was.

I went home, ma'am. I found God.

My mother said, I'm taking you to the doctor, Raymond.

I got saved. I thought, well, I supposed to

go to church now, I suppose. So I found this small

Pentecostal Church in Wales. It's 80 people.

I went in there and do you know what?

It's weird. So I met this amazing,

beautiful, exciting, forgiving, merciful person and then I met

his people. It don't make sense to me.

It was like walking into like when Luke Skywalker walked into

that bar with all him weird people.

You're going to understand. I, I, no, I didn't know about

this stuff. So I went into the church and,

and everybody got excited. Ray Bevan, he said he got saved.

Ray Ray. So I felt a bit special, to be

honest with you. I was used to being, you know,

women screaming my name and wanting to touch my body and

stuff. So I was used to all the fame,

you know what I mean? So I I go in the church and now

I'm famous again. And so I Rebeb on the same

wonderful come up puree and give your testimony.

I think. What's a testimony?

What is that? Come and tell your story.

So I'm up there 6:20 on the Sunday night giving my testimony

people going next Sunday rake 3 months every Sunday I'm up

there. I had to exaggerate.

I'm biting head of bats, I'm drinking poison.

I'm I've got to say something, you know what I mean?

So then I'm feeling really important.

My God, am I, Sir? Come on, somebody.

So one night and there I'm getting ready for my spot. 6:20

and now Mrs. Ivinson is going to come to sin.

And I'm sitting there ho my spot, bro.

Ray Bevan Hello. This was going on in my heart.

And then this woman gets up, and since I've never heard anybody

sing in three keys at the same time ever, there was blood

coming out of my ears. She had a hat on her head

because you had to wear hats in them days, right?

The whole of Africa was on the hat.

There were golf courses, birds flying in there.

And she was singing. I said, somebody stop, shoot the

woman. It's horrible.

But more importantly is what was going on in my heart.

I've been overlooked here and the youth pastor could see what

was going on and he came to me after and he said, Ray, last

night, you know, I was watching this programme on open heart

surgery. Said what?

Really. Yeah.

And he went through the whole operation and the surgeon, he

took up the knife and he ripped out the chest and he put the

scalpel on the table. Then he picked up the other

instrument and pulled the I'm nearly throwing up.

He's going through the whole thing with all instruments.

And then he takes this instrument, he uses it to put it

back on. I said, what are you telling me,

bro? He said, I know this way that

the instrument didn't lose its value whether it was in the

surgeon's hand or on the table. And he said, Ray, it doesn't

matter whether you're in his hand or on the table, Your value

is not connected with what you do, it's with who you are in

Jesus. Come on, somebody say Amen here.

You see what Jesus is not impressed with your Jesus is not

impressed with what your gift produces, but how your gift is

used. And I have the privilege of

preaching in South Africa now for over 30 years.

And the door to my destiny here was the towel, not the title.

Just a few. Just last week I was at my best

friend's funeral, passed away. Macaulay.

And in 1988, Reinhard Bunker was holding a conference in

Birmingham. 14,000 people and I was a youth evangelist.

My diary was packed. But when I heard that why not

was holding a conference because this man had changed my life so

much. I'm blocked the week out I said

I'm not doing anything, I'm going to go to that conference

and I just want to serve this man.

So I went up to the conference and I said to the organizer, I'm

here to serve. Where can I serve?

They said, well, if you go over to the headphones, they where

they give out the headphones. If you could do that.

I said, fabulous. I go over to the headphones.

They said, Ray, listen, we've had so many volunteers, we don't

need anybody. Just sit in the conference and

enjoy the conference. OK?

I sat up in the bleachers ready to get blessed.

Just before the conference started, there was a an

announcement over the PA. Would Ray Bevan please come

backstage? And I'm thinking, oh, what have

I done wrong now? Because I'm always thinking that

anyway. So I went backstage and the

worship leader said, look, Ray, we need somebody.

We've got a slot in the choir. Someone couldn't make it.

Would you help us? Would you sing in the choir?

I said, of course. So I'm going from headphones to

the choir now. And then a couple of nights

later, he came to me and said, look, Pastor Ray McCauley is

preaching on Wednesday night. Would you sing a song before he

preaches? I understand.

I turned up to give out headphones.

Are you understanding when I'm going here?

So that night I got, I used to sing this song called this

Little Child. And there's lots of verses in

it. And I tend to get a bit nervous

sometimes. And I, and if it's a lot of

verses, then I, I, I forget the verses.

And it happened on this particular night with 14,000

people. I went home with a thought and

singing away, he came to the third verse.

Blank, nothing. So what do you do?

You can't say, stop the track, start again.

So I had to make up the verses on my own.

It was rubbish. And, and all the shepherds saw

the angels singing over the mountain, the sheep, the bed and

all the people. It was rubbish, Rory.

But you know what the strange thing is, is all the people who

are going like this, Hallelujah. So anyway, so anyway, it's true.

So anyway, you know, like when you messed up and it finished

and I'm walking off like, oh God, I'm not doing this anymore.

I'm not doing this. Anyway, that was 1988.

God called me a Panther. Church started to grow.

I did, you know, started to grow.

And the only model I had was was Rhema Cauley's church in Rhema.

And I was feeding off the videos for two years.

That's the style. That's what we want here.

And it was radical for my country, that style.

So two years later, three years later, I'm preaching in a

conference. And Ray McCauley was preaching

in the same conference. So, so I, I thought, I'm going

to go to his meeting. If I, I said, Lord, please, 10

minutes, that's all I need with Ray, just 10 minutes.

I go to the meeting, 1000 leaders, I'm sitting at the

back. Ray's preaching the Holy Spirit

start to give me a song because sometimes the Lord uses me like

a psalmist and he started to give me the song about the fire

of God. And I'm rehearsing this song and

I'm trying to concentrate on Ray's preacher.

I almost said to the Holy Spirit, can you wait a bit while

I listen? But he wouldn't listen and this

fire, this song. And then he said to me, in 5

minutes, Ray's going to stop preaching and call you to sing

the song. So I was rehearsing and Ray

stops and this is all that happened.

Ray. Yeah.

Because that's how Ray used to speak.

Very gentle and very compassionate, very sensitive.

Ray. Yeah.

I looked at behind me now. Ray here.

OK, I come up, he gives me the mic.

I sing the song. The power of God hit the place.

I give the mic back to Ray. No words were spoken.

I sat down. I thought, well, at least I held

the microphone that he held. The leader of the meeting came

up to me after and he said, Ray, would you like to come and have

lunch with me and Ray McCauley? I didn't have 10 minutes.

I had three hours watch. We sat down.

Ray looked at me. He said I've been looking for

you ever since you sang that wonderful song before I

preached. God has told me you need to come

to South Africa, we need your gift and he said I want you to

come and speak. In my conference.

I had 80 in my church and I'm preaching one of the main

speakers with all the people with The Jets and everything.

I rode down here on my bike. But what I'm trying to say is

the reason why I'm here is because I said I'll give out the

headphones. It's the tower, not the title.

Come on, somebody say Amen in this house right here.

I'm pleased. I'm, I'm pleased.

I've got what? Stay with me.

It's very much, it's very much like, you know, Rebecca in the

Old Testament, Abraham wanted a wife for his son Isaac.

So he said to his servant, go back to the place where I was

born, and I want you to find a wife for my son Isaac.

And as we know from whose genealogy Jesus came, beautiful

picture Abraham the father, Isaac the son, the Holy Spirit,

the unnamed servant and and seeking a bride.

It's a beautiful picture there. But so the servant went and he

had 10 camels with him. And the Bible says he came and

he sat down by a well and he said he said, oh, God, let the

woman who offers me a drink and not only that, but offers to

water my camels also. Let her be the one.

Let her be the choice. I mean, 10 camels, Those humps

are not for show. Do you know how much those

suckers drink? I mean, you serious watering 10

camels? So anyway, we know the story.

Rebecca came. Oh, I'll do you want to drink,

Sir? And not only that, I'll water

your camels. And she was chosen.

And then the servant told her what the whole deal was.

But when I thought about the story, watch this, check it out

in Genesis 24. She was young, she was gifted,

She was beautiful. Watch.

She was morally pure, but the door to her destiny is Isaac's

pride was not her contacts, her charisma, or her morality.

It was her servant heart. She wasn't responding to an

advertisement in the ER times because that's where Abraham

came from. Imagine coming from a place

called ER. Where are you from?

No, where you're from where? Anyway, so watch she wasn't

responding to an advert saying the PS man looking for a bride,

very rich man looking for a bride from whose lying lineage

the Messiah will come. No or on PS She must love

watering camels, 10 of them, and she must be able to carry 1000

litres of water using A10 litre jug.

It'll probably start at 6:00 AM and it could take her five

hours. It will be an an an interruption

to her social calendar and it will seriously disrupt her plans

for the day. On top of that, she will have no

encouragement from the servant while she's doing it.

She will have no recognition from anyone and Heaven will be

silent. She will have no idea that

Heaven's gaze is upon her for promotion.

She will not realise she will be standing before a door of

destiny that only a servant heart can open, and they will be

disguised. The door of destiny will be

disguised as 10 thirsty camels and during the whole process

heaven will be silent. In Genesis 2421, it said, and

the servant watched in silence. No applause, No.

Come on, Rebecca, you don't know what's at stake here.

No pep talk, no indication of the importance of what was

happening right there. And you know what?

I believe and I've learned in my life very often God watches us

in, in silence. He watches.

And he hides himself in opportunities to serve the

innkeeper Jesus hid himself in Mary's womb and the innkeeper

didn't realize he missed an opportunity to serve the King of

Kings. And sometimes he will hide

himself in opportunities to serve.

His gaze is on us. His gaze was on me back there,

offering to give out the headphones.

That was that was not the plan. That was just the process to get

me here tonight. Very often you just end up turn

up enduring the routine of commitment.

When I went to the church, once I got over realizing I'm not on

another planet, but these are real people.

That was a joke. But when I got over that, when I

get over that, because this, the love of Jesus just burns in your

heart. And I said, and I just said,

where, where can I, where can I serve?

So there was a, there was a slot in the children's church.

I served in the children's church for 10 years.

And that's where I learned a lot about communicating the gospel

to kids because they'll tell you straight rubbish, you know what

I mean? They, they won't.

And so and I would get the lesson.

We had a prepared lesson every week.

And I'd get the lesson and I would rewrite the lesson because

it wasn't suiting the kids. It was like an American thing.

So I rewrote it. I wrote it, spent hours

rewriting. And I'd be fired up and I'd turn

up to the children's church and sometimes there'd be one kid

there, but I'd be as passionate teaching that one kid about the

love of Jesus. And I tell you this because

again, in Africa, I'm standing on a platform and I make an

appeal for salvation. And I think 500 people were

standing in the front receiving Jesus.

I said, Lord, how can you trust me with this?

He said, I saw you turn up for the one kid.

Come on, somebody, you got to get this.

You got this is not rocket science, but this is the key to

the door of your destiny. If you're still with me, say

Amen. Man, There's so much I could I

could say, but let me just say this, OK?

You know, so many young people, you, you're worrying about the

call of God and you're worrying about missing it.

Will I get it right? Let me tell you and let me give

you a bit of advice. Stop worrying about missing the

will of God. Live with a towel wrapped around

your waist and the will of God will find you.

The call of God normally comes in the form of an ambush.

You don't chase the call of God. The call of God chases you.

And my life has been one of a series of ambushes.

Proverbs 69, God says, go ahead and make your plans, but

ultimately I will order your steps.

We can make our plans. You don't have to lock yourself

up in a room for 16 years saying, God, I'm available.

Get on with life. Make your plans.

God says it's permissible. You're not disobeying God or

sabotaging your destiny by making your plans because

ultimately, when God wants you, he knows where you live, He

knows where you are, and he will come and get you.

Moses, Gideon, Rebecca, Saul, Mary, the disciples were all

ambushed while making their plans.

Moses was tending sheep in the desert, dealing with failure,

and God ambushed him. Gideon was threshing wheat,

dealing with an inferiority complex, and God ambushed him.

David was bringing sandwiches to his brothers, he had a towel

around his waist, and God ambushed him.

King Saul was looking for his father's donkeys.

He wasn't looking for kingship and God ambushed him.

What about this one? Jonah was running away.

Jonah, I want you to do this. No, I'm going this way.

Listen to me. I'm telling you, when God's got

His hand on you, when God's got His purposes ready to work out

on you, He will find you. The Script.

This scripture has become one of the bedrocks of my life as I've

served God for over 50 years. And the reason why you need to

have this revelation in your heart is because this scripture

will deliver you from the fear of failing.

It will deliver you from the fear of all the hesitancy of

making plans. Watch, Mary and Joseph were

planning to have Jesus born in Nazareth, but God turned the

whole world upside down to get them to the place of birthing.

I'm telling you, God can turn your whole world upside down to

get you to the place where he wants you to be.

Well, you know, I hope that's helped tonight.

It's a pastoral, but I see a lot of young people here tonight and

it's beautiful, beautiful. You have the most amazing church

here. And I've lived with that.

I've tried to live with that principle of living with the

tower and not chasing the title. And I remember not so long ago,

in a short space of time, people were coming up to me in airports

and in restaurants and. And just say, Ray, thank you for

coming to my school when I was 13.

I am now in the ministry serving God because of that.

And the depressing thing is there were now 50.

Do you know what I'm saying? And then I'd be in the airport.

Are you Ray Bevan? Yeah.

Thank you for coming to pray for my mum.

She was dying, and you came and you prayed for her and I, and

there was many, many, many in a short space of time.

And I couldn't remember most of most of them.

And I'm sitting in a conference on the front row.

There was a young man preaching, and he stopped and he said, Ray,

you've been asking Jesus why all these people are coming to say

thank you. I said, yeah.

He said Jesus is trying to say thank you.

Do you know the hairs went up in my arm and I thought to myself,

that one thank you from Jesus will be OK for me for the rest

of my life. Even if I don't have any title,

even if I don't have any position to hear that word,

Jesus saying thank you is enough for me.

And you know what? And then as I started to think

about it and I'll, I'll pray in a minute, I started to think

about it. And the Lord said to me, see

where there are two types of people in the church.

The we have people and the when did we people?

The we have people, Hey, Jesus, we've done this, we've cast out

demons. We've done this.

Look, we've been there. We have this.

And Jesus says that didn't really know you.

And then he comes to somebody else and he says, thanks for

going into the prison. Thanks for giving a cup of cold

water to that person. And it was like all these people

coming up and I didn't know. And, and, and, and, and my

response was, when did I do that?

When did we do that? I believe that God is raising up

hundreds and hundreds of young people in this house and you are

going to become when did we people not we have people you're

going to pick up the towel and you're going to serve.

See, I didn't know that Rory was going to call all them people up

on the stage. This the Holy Spirit has

orchestrated this whole service. You've demonstrated.

See the young lady crying, just wanting to serve, just wanting

to serve. Holy Spirit, thank you for this

message tonight. Thank you for helping me to

preach your word. Thank you for helping me to

share the wonderful things that you've done in my life, the way

you've led me, the way you've blessed me.

And I pray, Father, that out of this river, as the river has has

poured out of me, I thank you that there are people that have

been hearing it and are ready to apply it in their life.

So, Father, I commend them to your grace and to your mercy.

I pray that they will seek the tower and not the title.

Lord help us to serve one another, help us to love one

another that all may all men may see and know that Jesus is in

this house. We give you thanks and everybody

said God bless you. Thank you.