Gospel Gangster

I'm excited today because my good friend is here today as well.

Kevin Wright, pastor, evangelist extraordinaire, is with us today.

And let me tell you a little bit about him.

Tasha and I always get together over the last several years about Appreciation

Sunday. And she'll say, hey, who should we invite to come in and bring a word?

And we'll go through names and we'll pray about it. and Kevin's name just came

to the top this year to bring the word for Pastor Appreciation Sunday.

I've known this man since 1998.

We started Jerry Savelle's Bible School in 1998. We were young men at the time,

very young and very wild, but in a good way, in a good way, wild.

But we were on fire just for the Lord and connected with he and his wife,

his virtuous woman of God. And we just connected over the years.

And he moved to Texas after he graduated in 2000.

He invited, oh, Florida. I'm sorry. We were in Texas. Thank you. Moved to Florida.

He lived there. So he went back home and he's been in the ministry ever since.

But before I even got going in ministry, Kevin used to invite me out to his

youth group. He had a youth group of what? 300 youth? 600.

600 youth. I mean, I had a video I was going to show. But, I mean,

just he was impacted in that area where the youth were concerned.

And he would invite me out, man,

come share a word. And I wasn't really in full-time ministry at the time.

And then when he started his church, he would say, hey, come share the word.

And so we've been talking for decades now.

And just every Sunday, you know, we would talk, how was service?

And, you know, when you say how was service, we don't talk about how many people

were in attendance or how much the offering was, because that's not how service was. Amen?

We talk about what did the Lord do in that service, who was impacted,

what stood out, and what went wrong.

Things go wrong every Sunday. And we talk about that, too, and how to correct

it. And so we've been to Thailand together, Singapore.

You remember Singapore? Oh, yeah. I got to tell the Singapore story.

Come on up here, matter of fact.

Come on, welcome him. Give him a hand. Stand up. Stand up. Welcome Pastor Kevin to this platform.

But let's tell the Singapore story. We got to tell this story. So you jump in, okay?

So we were in Singapore. Beautiful country, by the way. If you ever have a chance

to go to Singapore, make sure you go.

And we were able to go out of town. You know, get out downtown.

We were allowed to go. And so me, Kevin, a couple of other, Andy, who else was with us?

Maybe I forget. Was Eddie with us? Maybe Eddie was with us. Okay.

And so we jump in a taxi, and we're going to, you know, we're going to go downtown

to Singapore and just see what the country holds.

And so as we jump in the taxi, the taxi driver says, do y'all want little girl?

We're like, what in the world?

Do y'all want little girl or something like that, right? No,

he said, do you want woman, husband, not home? That's what he said.

That's what he said Do you want woman husband not home,

Pastor Devon said Am I going to waste my anointing

over that We all got out of that car fast

We got out of that taxi pretty quick We were like what in the world But I remember

you saying I ain't going to waste my anointing on this Oh that was a crazy time

But no I'm not going to waste my anointing on some adultery and fornication.

No, no, no. We got out of that car fast. We got out of that car pretty. We said, drop us off.

Get us out of here. We didn't even have a congregation or anything.

We were still doing the right thing. That's right. Amen.

Yeah, we didn't have a congregation or anything at that point.

Because Jerry Savelle would have put us in a headlock for sure.

Yes. Yes. Dean Powers, too.

John Powers would have got his good. And so do you remember the time,

and then I'll let you preach the word.

Do you remember the time we went out into, we were somewhere in Thailand.

I don't even know where we were.

And it was really, really cold. And I said, guys, shut the door so that we can,

you know, get this cold air out of here.

And you said, look up, Devon. And I looked up and there was no roof.

We were in a hut that had no roof at all.

But I'm talking about shut the door. And I looked up and I was like,

so that night was a cold night.

Yeah, it was a cold night. Have fun today, brother. I love you.

Especially when them spiders start crawling around. Oh, yeah, I remember that.

Have fun. Y'all give it up for Pastor Devon.

Praise God. You may be seated. Well, I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here.

Welcome everybody online, by the way. Let's give it a hand for everybody watching online.

I'm happy to be here because...

I love this guy. And he's one of my best friends. He's my brother.

We kind of have similar style today, by the way, I noticed.

I look a little bit better, but similar style, you know.

But he became my best friend back at school, you know, because we laughed at

the same stuff, you know.

And church people can be pretty funny at times, you know.

You ever look at church people? We're all funny.

But we would laugh at the same stuff and we've just never stopped hanging out.

He would come preach at the youth ministry and we both saw each other's journeys.

And just to see his journey and my journey, how God cared about us and put us

in places of ministry is just an honor that God trusts us.

Isn't it an honor that God trusts us? It's a huge deal that God would trust

us and especially trusting us to speak to people.

And so I wanted to come here and share today and honor my friend.

But I'm not coming as my word that I'm bringing is only going to build on the

foundation that already exists.

This is not a word of correction. I just see how your church honors you.

And I've sat in that spot before as people would say words of affirmation over me as a pastor.

And I'll tell you what, it's the greatest gift you can give a pastor.

It really is. What do they want? What do they need? You did it today.

It's beautiful. So we're going to talk about this topic today,

honoring spiritual authority.

And if you want to get your iPhone out and take notes, you can.

But we're going to honor your pastors today, and I'm going to give words of affirmation.

Today is about valuing the visionary of the house.

And we're going to center up right here in 1 Thessalonians 5.

I'm going to read it out of the message translation in chapter 5, verse 12 and 13.

It says this, And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you,

who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience.

Overwhelm them with appreciation and love

and that's exactly what we're going to do we're going

to overwhelm pastor devon and stacy with

our love today somebody say amen if you're not here and you're watching online

you can do it next time you come back to church next week if you miss and we

can we can continue the honor the whole month amen so i think in my personal opinion as a pastor,

you have to be a gospel gangsta to be a pastor.

Now, I used to see Jerry Savelle, Brother Copeland, they come in,

they just look so good and we would honor them, but we didn't know what it takes

to be in ministry back then.

We just, there was something glamorous about, I want that. And when you're young

and immature in the Lord, you see what they have, and without even knowing,

you're kind of like, I want that lifestyle.

Not to say that we're not called to the ministry. We are immature at that time.

I remember seeing Jerry Savelle come into town, and I was like,

I want to be just like him.

Just like I would, I want to play basketball like Michael Jordan. You know what I mean?

But I realize you do have to be a gospel gangsta to be a pastor.

I'm going to tell y'all some of my greatest hits. How many people want to hear

some of my greatest hits as a pastor?

My first week of youth ministry.

I mean, I am called to the ministry. I'm standing up preaching to my 70, at that time 70 kids.

The youth pastor before me went on and I got my first week.

We had a great service, powerful service. God moved.

And then all of a sudden, one of my staff leaders came up to me and said,

Pastor Kevin, there's a young man out by the road that says he's going to commit

suicide. He's going to jump in front of a car.

This is my first week of youth ministry.

So I run out. I say, hey man, it's okay.

It's okay. And I'm starting to talk to him. And when he turned his back,

I wrapped my arms around him to keep him from jumping in front of the car.

And, you know, I don't know what I know now about MMA, you know,

but back then I grabbed him. My head's right here.

He elbows me and bust my eye wide open. This is the first week. So I got him.

I slammed him to the ground.

And when I slammed him to the ground, I landed on top of him,

and he starts growling at me. This is my first week of youth ministry.

He's growling at me. And I'm sitting there, and I said, oh, I need to cast the devil out of this guy.

So I cast the devil out of him. And right then, he passes out.

We throw him in the back of a pickup.

He's in the back of the pickup. I'm in the back of the pickup to have my eye

checked out. We both went to the hospital.

You got to be a gospel gangster to be a pastor.

Pastoring young people, they would write me death threats after I get done preaching

because it got corrected during service. And then I became a lead pastor one

day and said, yes, things are going to get easier.

Then I realized adults, I found out adult Christians have the ability to gossip,

betray you, slander you, backbite you, and lie straight to your face.

And I realized that they took all those issues from teenage over to adulthood. Okay.

Then, you know, the first month of having my church, a baby bites another baby

and the baby's daddy that got, you know, the baby that got bit,

he wants to fight me after church.

You got to be a gospel gangsta to be.

And then right when I started church in 2008, y'all remember 2008?

It was a very difficult time financially for the whole United States of America.

So I was going through bankruptcy.

I was losing everything. The

people that come, the repo guy came and got my Hummer. She was a woman.

She came and got my Hummer and took it out of the driveway. by the way,

I ran and jumped on the hood. No, I'm just joking.

I did not. That's what most people do, isn't it? Like, they're not paying their

bills and they jump on the hood.

You ain't taking my car I ain't paying for.

She calls me and says, listen, I know you're a pastor. Do you want to come out

and get your stuff out of the Hummer? And here I am.

This is the hardest time of my life. I'm embarrassed. I've let my family down.

You look up the word failure in the dictionary, it says bankrupt.

And here I am feeling like a failure I've got this church it's got 30,

40 people in it and I'm getting paid I think I was getting paid 150 a week 100

a week I mean it was tough times and working at the space center,

and you know I went out there the woman gave me my stuff she goes can you pray

for me I ended up praying for her leading her to Jesus as she drove off with

my Hummer you got to be a gospel gangsta to be a pastor.

And then one person you know in those early

oh let me finish that after I'm going through bankruptcy one of my staff members

finds out I'm going through bankruptcy she tells other staff members and they

leave the church over it and kick me when I'm down hey I ain't got no bills now laughter.

I didn't have any bills with the church. And I'm glad to tell you all these

years later, I've paid for the last two vehicles, I've paid cash for. I made some changes.

And I repented over borrowing all the time. How many people know pastors do need to repent?

And I repented over that. And I got it right.

And I started just trusting God and saying, well, we don't need that air conditioner.

We just can't buy it with cash. Let's save up for it. And I started believing God for it.

But they kicked me when I was down.

You've got to be a gospel gangsta to be a pastor.

And then you've got the funerals.

Like, you know, pastors have the front row seat to so many hardships.

Walking families through so many, you know, for me as a pastor, I have buried children,

babies, grandparents, accidents, suicides, and all the things that come with being a pastor.

The reason why I'm saying this is some people just don't know what a pastor

is. And this is a Pastor Appreciation Sunday.

They don't really know what it means to honor a pastor or have an understanding why we honor pastors.

I remember one time I had a funeral I was doing and I was, what's it called, a processional?

I was walking the family down and we were walking out and everybody's here and

all of a sudden the wife behind me of the man who passed away said,

Pastor, she needs to get off the front row. It was the ex-wife.

I said, what's that? She goes, she's got to go. And we had to stop the line.

Stop the line. So I come up here.

I said, ma'am, the family would like you to move away. This is where they're

sitting. She goes, I ain't moving.

Ma'am, she's not moving. Oh, she's going to move or I'm going to move her.

I need the wisdom of God right now.

So I looked over here to the right. I told everybody on the front row and the

second row, y'all need to move.

And then I took this family and brought them over here on the front row while

this woman sat by herself.

I'm telling you right now, this is stuff that pastors go through.

Then after they leave, they fight in my parking lot. This is Jerry Springer

breaking out at my church.

You got to be a gospel gangsta to be a pastor.

Not counting the naysayers, the people that go off on you, the people that lie.

You've got to be a gospel gangster.

Can I talk about it?

So I really believe understanding leads to appreciation. So I want to talk about what it means to honor.

Honor means to esteem, to appreciate, to value, to prize, to be grateful.

Honor is action where value and esteem is expressed toward your pastor or you add value.

Like when a judge walks into a courtroom, they'll say, oh, rise for honorable judge.

And then everybody rises, not because they like the judge, because it's his position.

Or her position.

Understanding, everybody say this after me, understanding leads to appreciation.

You can't really respect who or what you don't understand.

It's hard to appreciate. You know, one of the worst things that somebody used

to come up and say to me, I know you're a pastor, but what do you do for work?

How about I just smack you right now?

I mean, people have these things

that they think about pastors and they don't know behind the scenes.

They don't know it. So in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12 says this,

1 Thessalonians 5:12

it says, And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and

are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.

And be at peace among yourselves. It says to know them and to esteem them.

So what is a definition of a pastor? I want to give it to you.

A definition of a pastor is a hand-picked person by Jesus Christ to the local

church and to a specific group of people, believers.

That's what a pastor is. He's a gospel gangster.

He is. He's a gospel gangster. it.

In Jeremiah 34, chapter 3, verse 14, I'm going to read in 15.

I'm just going to read 15.

And I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Notice that the word give, I will give you shepherds according to my heart who

will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Ephesians 4, 11 says, and he himself, God gave some to be apostles,

some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. For what?

Y'all know this, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry

and the edifying of the body of Christ. Somebody say amen.

Now, you know, you got a pastor, but you know, Pastor Devon is definitely 100% a teacher too.

This man teaches. I always tell him when I listen, I get your text.

I think I don't know who sends out y'all's text, emails. I get them all.

I watch your TikToks. I see you preach. I see you preach on truth.

I am one of your members from far away.

I get the text. I get the emails. And I love all of it.

And it's always edifying. I always tell Pastor Devon, I say,

man, you're such a great teacher. You communicate so well.

And he has favor on his life.

I mean, who else? Gets to go to the UFC and prays with DC.

And then goes and he's on television. This man's destined. Him and his wife

are destined for greatness.

That's for sure. I want to say this.

Pastor Devon and Stacy was handpicked for this house. For this flock.

Handpicked because he did the work before the work. When we were at Bible school. We didn't know.

We have our books. I was looking at your book. And then I see my book.

And we were in Bible college. We never thought we would be authors and pastors and leaders.

We just wanted more of Jesus. But then the Lord promoted us.

You know, you will never, write this down, you will never benefit or enjoy the

gift of a pastor until you receive your pastor as a gift.

I'll say it again. You will never benefit or enjoy the gift of a pastor because

that's what pastors are. They're gifts to the body.

Aren't you glad you got some gifts?

You will never benefit or enjoy the gift of a pastor until you receive your

pastor as a gift from God.

Now, I've been in ministry 32 years.

I've been pastoring. I don't know how long I've been pastoring.

I've been pastoring a long time.

I started pastoring young people at a very young age. I was preaching at 19.

And so I've been in this for a while. And so I've been around to see the good,

bad, and ugly just like you guys.

And I know what it takes to be a pastor. And I think today, your greatest benefit

as a believer is receiving your pastor as a gift from God.

Here's what you need to say out loud. My pastors are gifts from God. Go ahead and say it.

Our pastors are gifts from God.

So how do you first receive pastors as a gift from God?

Being a member of a local church is the first step of receiving your pastor

as a gift from God. Now, I'm not talking about...

I have seen... This is true. Because I said to be a pastor you've got to be a gospel gangster.

Because I have had people join my church on a Sunday and the next Sunday join

another church in the same community. Let me tell you something.

I can tell you, I can't make this up.

I have seen a lot over my years. That's why I'm showing my grade.

I want my grade to show that, hey, this guy's been through some things.

I had most of it, but now I'm like, oh, I've earned this, baby. I've got a 22-year-old.

So, you know, there's a time when you become a member, you're saying,

I don't want to date the church anymore. I want to put a ring on it.

Amen? 1 Corinthians 12.18 says this, But now God has set the members of each

of them in the body just as He pleads.

God places pastors over local churches. There are destinies on local churches.

Not all local churches are the same.

You know, imagine local churches being like, let's say like trades.

Let's just say this was an electrician church or a carpenter's church or a plumber's church.

Each one of them has specific destinies.

And you know, Pastor Devon and Stacey are fit for a specific assignment for this church.

There's an anointing like I could not come in and no one else could come in

and do it better than them.

Because they fit this house.

You fit this house. In this church, there's a call of God on the church.

There's a call of God on individuals.

In the local church, everybody has something that God has on your life.

But I've learned this about local church.

You will walk into your future calling, destiny.

Most people receive their purpose inside the local church.

I'm a member of a local church.

Before I got into ministry, I was a member of a local church.

I found my calling inside the local church.

I found out that my destiny was connected to the local church.

Not every one of you are going to be starting churches and things like,

thank God, because I told you, You've got to be a Gospel Gangsta to be...

This should be called Gospel Gangsta.

Change that title.

There is a God assignment. I got into youth ministry serving in the local church.

And the first week of youth ministry, there was a youth pastor named Aaron Maynors.

And he was the first one who taught me how to have youth church,

not youth group. He said there's two kinds of youth groups.

There's youth ministries, youth groups, and youth church.

And he taught me the concept of youth church. And I said, in other words,

you know, God grew through us.

A youth ministry ended up being 600 youth. But I'll tell you what,

I started out just serving in the youth ministry.

And he would give me three minutes to share during the offering. I was the offering guy.

And if I went over the three, he would do this.

That's my first lessons is being under authority about time.

He'd go like this. And then he'd correct me. He'd say, hey, I said three minutes.

You got three minutes. From then on out, I'd get up there. Time,

three minutes. Well, back then, there was no iPhone.

It was like a watch. Three minutes. And right at three minutes, done.

Right at three minutes, done. and those were my early lessons training,

learning how to be under authority honoring my spiritual authority and it was

the first week of youth ministry Aaron Maynard laid hands on me I had a hat

on he went bam laid hands on me I hit the ground and something happened in my

life those were the early days of ministry for me.

And it wasn't until after J.S.M.I., Jerry Savelle's school, that I came back

and I became a youth pastor, but it all started in the local church.

You want to grow in ministry, you cannot have your own ministry if you can't

be under someone else's ministry.

You just can't do it. You can't be faithful with a lot until you've been faithful with a little.

These are the things. Well, man, I thought for the longest time I would never

be in ministry. I would never preach.

I was never going to get opportunity.

I used to, you know, we had tapes and CDs back then. How many people remember the tapes?

And like right now, I still have tons of cassette tapes. I have a cassette tape player.

And I still play it. The other day, it ate one of my tapes.

Because I have a collection of all of Kenneth Hagin's tapes,

that fits a whole entire, I am like, like if somebody broke in my house,

the first place I would look and make sure they didn't get my tapes.

And VCR tapes. I have a VCR. And I still play this stuff.

I was listening to Norval Hayes the other day.

Going back into archiving. Because when Brother Jerry passed away,

there was something that said, man, I want to take, not his place,

I want to take my place in the body.

But it all started in the local church. Everybody say local church.

It is super important to understand the role of the local church and understand

the role of pastors. Somebody say amen.

Everybody say I fit this church.

Why is it important to join the church? Write this down. It gives your pastor

spiritual jurisdiction to speak into your life.

Like everybody needs someone that can speak into your life.

And one thing I love about Pastor Devon, I told him last night we were watching

Tennessee be Alabama, glory to Jesus. Oh, hallelujah.

I heard you. I'm sorry. I ain't getting a ride home today. I ain't getting a ride home.

And I looked at him and I said, you know what I love about you,

man? Is he always tells the truth.

Even if it hurts your feeling. I'll ask, what did you think about this with

a smile on my face? I didn't like it.

What do you mean you didn't like it? It's good. He says, I didn't like it,

I want to tell you. I mean, he's just so truthful.

But, you know, going to a church, submitting under spiritual authority gives

your pastor spiritual jurisdiction to speak into your life. We should want correction.

Hebrews 13, 17 says this, Obey your spiritual leaders. Submit to them. O Lord.

Recognizing their authority over you. I know this is tough.

I promise you guys, I have been corrected by pastors more than any pastor because I'm wild.

Pastor Devon may correct me today.

I've had my youth pastor at the time, I had his veins.

He was so mad at me, his veins were popping out. because I started like a mud

fight at a youth retreat.

We knocked the fire exchanger off the wall and the whole place filled up with smoke.

And it cost like three grand.

We cost the church three grand.

He wanted to kill me. My senior pastor, I drove him nuts.

He said, Kevin, you can't have the kids eating worms. We did Fear Factor,

a whole camp on Fear Factor.

And at our camp i bought he i didn't tell him everything because i'd rather ask for forgiveness,

so i bought brand new toilets should i say this it was ministry so i have to

say we bought brand new toilets and in the toilets i filled them up with mountain

dew and put candy bars and we had to bob for candy bars that's a true story

y'all want to know how to reach kids i am i am the man,

there was a reason why these kids came because they knew it was going to be crazy and we,

and then for fear factor we had crickets and

worms hey and then he says you're going to get sued man i said but pastor that

was two i baptized 200 kids at that camp in the middle of all you better know

the language of that generation you know so i i knew the language and i i don't

know if I know the language anymore. LAUGHTER.

Y'all know something? Y'all better tell me. For they are keeping watch over

your souls as pastors and continually guarding your spiritual welfare as those

who give an account of their stewardship of you. Notice that.

They will give an account of their stewardship to you.

Well, I need to correct my pastor. Oh, no, no, no.

The Lord will correct your pastor. It doesn't mean you can't bring something to a pastor.

But I'll tell you right now, before I even think about bringing something to

a pastor. I have a process.

I fast, I pray, and I usually never have to approach the pastor.

Can I talk to you today? It says they will give an account to the Lord.

So it says let them correct you and do everything.

Let them do this with joy. I had people on my staff I would have dread just to talk to them.

I would have to be a spirit of dread.

Like I would be like, I don't want to talk to her. I don't want to talk to him

because they are going to get you can't say nothing to them.

That is not a mature thing.

They ought to be able to do it with joy. Listen, I want to tell you something.

This is not how we do this here.

This is our flavor. This is our style. This is our culture. This fits us.

And you know what you and I do? We say, Amen. That's now my culture.

That's now of my style. That's now my flavor. Somebody say amen.

You ain't going to like every song. I mean, think about the pastors.

The music's too loud. The music's not too, it's not loud enough.

I got so mad when I bought earplugs. I said, if it's too loud, earplug your ears.

And I had earplugs on the table as you walked in. You can get them anytime. You fine?

What are you going to do when we get to heaven and all that worship's going

on? You're going to say, it's too loud. Jesus!

So, 1 Thessalonians 5.13 says, and to esteem those who are over you very highly

in love for their work's sake.

So I'm going to give you seven primary responsibilities of a pastor.

I'm doing good on time. What time do I need to end? and honestly.

Two o'clock. Thank you.

I'm landing. I'm landing here soon. It'll be my first landing.

Responsibilities of a pastor. One, feed the flock. Somebody say feed the flock.

Come on, say it again. Feed the flock. Feed the flock. You know,

a pastor's going to feed the flock with knowledge and understanding and give

instruction. They're the visionaries.

They're going to speak to these areas of your life spiritually,

mentally, financially, emotionally, and physically. Amen?

Number two, responsibility. To serve as spiritual authority over the house.

The lead pastor is where the vision flows down.

He's the man of God of the house. The visionary. Aren't you glad for the visionary?

Number three, see to it that things get done and not personally do them all.

Somebody say amen.

No pastor can do everything and be everywhere.

There was a time at my church, I was the AC guy, I vacuumed the church,

I've done everything now that I asked everybody else to do.

And I guarantee you this man of God has too. He's not asking you to do anything

that he hasn't done himself already.

It's not like pastors are too good to do stuff, It's just we need to equip them

to do what they're called to do.

They don't need to be doing everything else. Amen.

I got so frustrated one time. I said, I'm just going to throw the ball up.

If no one catches, I'm walking away from the ball.

And one time, people needed help in the children's ministry.

I just went back there and started helping.

On a Sunday. Amen.

And then somebody said, Pastor, you've got to get back out there. I said, no, no, no.

There's help. No, you've got to get back out there. And then I went back out

there and said, listen, I was going to do that all day.

Nobody gets to preach if we don't have help. Somebody say amen.

Not going to meddle too much today.

Pastors are called to pour their life into leaders. Aren't you glad He pours

His life, their lives into you?

Number six, pray for the flock.

And number seven, love the flock.

Amen. And I'm going to end with this. Ten ways to honor your pastors.

Ten ways to honor your pastors. And you're going to have a hard time keeping

up writing down, so you have to go back and write it down.

Or Facebook me and I'll get you the message. Alright? The notes.

Why am I talking about ten ways to honor your pastors? Because when it comes

to church, sometimes we think serving, that's enough.

I want to take it a step further. I think serving where they need you is enough.

Oh, I'm just going to serve. Well, serving is great, but it'd be like,

you know, I serve my wife.

I don't serve her and do things for her that she looks at me and is like,

I don't even really need you to do that.

I serve Terry where Terry needs to be served.

That's what I bring to the game. She brings that back to me.

So I want to share with you about how to serve and honor your pastors on this

Pastor Appreciation Sunday.

Number one, you honor your pastors when you consistently position yourself to

hear what God has given them.

Your physical presence at church, I promise you, is a huge blessing to your pastor.

They only get to see you once a week most of the time, unless there's events later on.

But it is a huge blessing when they see your face sitting in the church,

receiving what God has given.

You know, it would be no different if I invited y'all over for a meal and I

made this big meal and no one showed up for it.

He cooks this meal up for you guys. And I'll tell you, one way to honor your

pastor is show up and eat. Somebody say amen.

Two, you honor your pastor when you honor his spouse and his children.

You can't honor Pastor Devon and not honor Stacey.

This, y'all want me to say it again? I will. You can't honor Pastor Devon and not honor Stacey.

There is no such thing. I don't know. Let me tell you, these ladies get attacked. Listen.

My wife, she was wowed, just like me.

She got into ministry, went to Jerriesville School, but she's very much going

to be herself whether you like it or not.

I've never seen more people so viciously attack my wife in the church. She's got some tattoos.

That rebellious woman, I tell you.

She preached for me on my Facebook Live today. And I'm just joking about that.

But the church, they judge very harshly.

This woman is a woman of God. She walked away from her wild lifestyle,

but she gets judged pretty harshly.

She wasn't going to dress like everybody else. And I had to determine whether

or not, how are we going to do this?

She wasn't going to dress provocatively, but she was going to dress her style.

But she wasn't going to be the style of what people think what they thought she should be,

and so when I would find out that somebody wasn't honoring my wife now you're dishonoring me,

like that's my woman she's mine you don't honor her you don't honor me,

we don't talk bad about the family because let me tell you this I'm going to

say to everyone watching everybody that will watch,

what happens in this church toward this family will determine if their kids

even want to be in church when they become adults,

this is the whole setup their children are watching people are watching they

know, listen, my daughter saw,

like they my daughter was judged because when you know, when your kids start

growing up, they make decisions when Faith became an adult, she didn't act like church folk.

But she's mine. That's my daughter.

I'm going to love that girl. Even if she's not putting Jesus first.

And you should have heard.

Let me tell you. I'm going to tell y'all something. If you don't like this dysfunctional

church go find you another dysfunctional church.

Because I'm going to tell y'all right now y'all looking real holy today but

there's a lot of dysfunction up in this house.

We just bring all that dysfunction together. We're one big dysfunctional family.

It's not a bad confession.

Because dysfunction means not everything's functioning to perfection.

And I guarantee you right now, you have your days where you say things you shouldn't say.

And you act like a heathen. And then you come into the church.

Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.

Does it need binding? Let's bind it. But right before then, cussing somebody out in traffic.

What happens in church to their family is to set up what's going to happen to

their children later on, how they're going to view the local church.

Faith at times, she wants to be back in the local church, but she saw how people

treated her, how they judged her, and what we're doing is we're setting people up for pain.

Come on now. Because now that when your kids become adults, they make decisions as adults.

You don't make their decisions anymore.

There's no more leverage. You can't take their phone away from them.

You know what I mean? They're now at a place. That's why it's important.

It's a major topic right here. This is how we honor them. We honor their family. We pray for their kids.

I love your confessions over your pastors. I can hear you guys.

Are well above what most churches are, how they are when it comes to honoring their pastor.

Y'all are very honorable towards your pastors.

And I'm proud of you.

I wish I had some of y'all at my church back in the day.

And I want to say to anybody that used to go to my church, there are some that

still honor me to this day. There's a woman named Bernadette, Mama Bernadette.

She came over as pastor appreciation study. I don't have a church building anymore.

I'm an evangelist with a pastor's heart, but I still pastor my partner's.

She brought over a card for Terry and I with $50 in it.

Man, I felt like, wow, I miss the days of getting in front of people.

That's why I get so excited standing in front of y'all.

Not many, you know, pastors have invited me to come preach. And I feel like,

you know, I got something.

But if I ain't got no churches, I'm hitting highways and hedges.

I don't need no local church. I got highways and hedges. Amen.

Number four, you honor your pastor when you submit to his delegated authority

and trust their judgment.

Oh, this is a hard one. Can I talk just real quick? I remember when I was pastoring,

I had two best friends on my staff, both pastors.

One was my associate pastor, a new team leader comes on because as you grow,

you've got to get more pastors.

And the ones that have been there the longest time, they get a little, who's this person?

And so I told my friend, Pastor Tim Lumpkin, one of my bestest of friends,

a man of God, I told Pastor Tim, hey, I'm going to put you in a different area.

And I think this pastor will do a, I think he has a more gift at doing this

area of ministry than you and I'll put you in where I think your gift's going

to work best. That was humbling for Pastor Tim.

Pastor Tim said to me, okay, I'll do it.

Put my new guy in. He did horrible.

He did horrible in that area. And I'll tell you what, Pastor Tim Lumpkin,

He immediately, I put him back in that spot, put my other friend in another

area. This is what I'm talking about. If you're going to honor your pastor.

We have to submit to their delegated authority, even if we don't like the delegated authority.

You ain't going to like every person you serve with.

But you've got to love them. I mean, you don't like everybody.

There are some people... Listen, Sister Susie at this church has another sister,

Sister Sandpaper, at the next church.

And Sister Susie rubbed you the

wrong way. Don't worry, you go to the next church. Her sister goes there.

You can't get away from this stuff. This is church.

You honor your pastor when you pray for him regularly. Their family, their kids.

How many people know the devil can't get the pastor when he goes after Stacy and the children?

The devil says, I'm going to get your kids. Y'all lift them kids up.

So y'all know Satan's trying to get the church. He goes after,

he smite the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.

And number six, you honor your pastor when you engage in biblical confrontation

rather than divisive criticism.

Be able to receive confrontation without them being afraid you're going to leave

the church because they corrected you. No pastor should feel that way.

We can handle this. Everybody say, we can handle it.

See, Stacey walked out right when I said that. I already knew she was leaving.

I love you. She's got to get to the house and we got people coming over, don't we?

So, seven. When you have biblical expectations, not personal.

Pastor can't meet with everybody, but I guarantee he does a really good job trying.

There are some meetings God may not tell pastor to meet with that person on.

There may be people who wants to meet with him and God don't tell him to meet with them.

Listen, you've got to submit to that.

Amen. There are some people I wasn't going to waste my time on. I had hate mail.

This month I had hate mail delivered to me. And they sent voicemails.

They record and sinned and I hit it and they were going off shit. This person.

I'm not even having a church. You know what? The beginning of the conversation

said, y'all want to know what they said?

Y'all want some tea? Y'all want me to spill the tea? I'll spill you some tea.

They said, you're not as good as preacher as you used to be online. You're just not as good.

I said, why? I was thinking, wow, I've got over 2,000 views a week.

I'm pastoring a bigger church now than I ever have.

And then they started going off on, guess who? Terry.

And so I stopped. I said, I don't have to listen to this person. I shot him.

And then they said, guess what? They said, you abandoned your church.

That's when I stopped. Because during COVID is when we sold our building because

I wasn't doing good mentally and we weren't doing good as a church.

And I had to basically walk away from that to pastor myself.

To be able to get back in front of you again. Because y'all know to be a pastor,

you've got to be a gospel gangster.

Somebody say amen. You can't have

expectations on your pastor and expect they're going to do this or that.

They're going to do what the Lord tells them. Somebody say amen.

Number eight, when you allow your pastor to grow and make mistakes,

they're going to make some mistakes like I made that mistake of shifting someone

where I shouldn't shift them.

I'm not perfect. He is not perfect.

He is not perfect. And number nine.

When you stand with them in difficult times. This is how you honor your pastors.

When they go through stuff.

Somebody say amen. They're going to go through some stuff. This man right here

has been through some stuff.

Having a church, you go through some stuff.

And number ten, when you support your pastor and family financially.

The hardest task for me as a pastor, while I was pastoring, I was working another

job because we didn't have enough

money coming in for me to pastor and dedicate my whole life into it.

Even though I was already dedicating my whole life into it.

But then going to work and doing that, that is not the will of God for pastors.

Pastors that do that, that is not the will of God. The will of God is congregations,

members, take care of their pastor.

And I'm not always just talking about tithes and offerings. I'm talking about

come up and slip a Benjamin in his pocket.

Amen! I'll tell you, the most valuable thing you gave him was words of affirmation

today. I promise you that.

I know my friend, that was the greatest thing you can ever give a pastor.

But every once in a while, $5, $3.

Or take a little bucket and put pastor's bonus. And every time you get a dollar,

put it in there until it gets to $100. And then you go and you give it to him.

See, that kind of stuff honors your spiritual authority in the house.

I'll end with these Scriptures.

We get ready to close. Play something churchy.

I'm not receiving an offering. It don't have to be low. Low on Jesus.

Play something churchy. Play something churchy.

What is your name? Curtis?

Did I say it wrong?

Oh, Kurt. Oh, I want to tell you about Kurt Franklin.

I forgot one of my biggest hits as a pastor.

We were approaching Sunday.

Oh, he's building it good. We're approaching Sunday and my whole worship team

quits my team and goes to play at another church.

I had to play the worship behind me. And I told my wife, I'm just going to be Kirk Franklin.

You know, Kirk, you never hear him sing. He's a hype guy. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I got up. I played the music. That was Kirk Franklin.

That was my final hit.

I didn't even want to be in ministry after that day.

1 Timothy 5.17 says this. And remember, none of this is correction.

Because I believe this church is a beautiful, I just saw you guys in action today. Beautiful.

1 Timothy 5.17 Amplified Bible says, the elders who perform their leadership

duties well are to be considered worthy of double honor, financial support,

Amplified Version says, financial support, especially those who work hard at

preaching and teaching the Word of God concerning eternal salvation through

Christ Jesus. Say this after me.

Pastors should be paid. Pastors should be paid.

Real good.

You want them abundantly blessed because that's where you're heading.

Because it comes from the top.

I lost somebody back at my home church. They would say, they would be mad.

I mean, I'm in the right house, man. This is easy. My church,

I would have been plowing, boy, through religion and poverty mindset.

This house is like, yes!

Romans 15, 27. They were pleased to do it, and they are indebted to them.

For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual things,

then they are indebted to serve them also intangible material things.

Amen. Galatians 6.6 The one who is taught the Word of God is to share all good

things with his teacher, contributing to his spiritual and material support.

Somebody say amen. Amen. gifts are

voluntary when it comes to supporting your pastor not out of uh force or pressure

voluntarily out of your kindness of your heart these are things we do any church

that does not honor their pastor will never ever grow.

Music.