You Belong To Jesus

Over your Bibles, Acts chapter 19, real quick, Acts 19, and meet me at verse

Acts 19 · chapter mention

13, Acts chapter 19, verse 13, we'll read through to verse 16. Verse 16.

Acts 19:13

And the word of the Lord says, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took

it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil

spirits, saying, we exercise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

Also, there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did so.

And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul,

I know, but who are you? Somebody shout, who are you?

Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them,

and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Notice in this passage of scripture, there were seven sons of Scevah who were

going around trying to expel and exercise demon spirits out of people.

There are still demon spirits today, and they are residing in people, all right?

And so demon spirits are around, and these exorcists were walking around saying,

I expel you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches, right?

And so demons say, well, listen, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?

And I think many of us, many saints, many believers, we don't really know who we are.

And I think we are going through an identity crisis in the earth.

People don't know if they're male. They don't know if they're female.

They don't know if they're black or white. It don't matter if you're black.

They don't know any of, they don't know anything.

They don't know who the Lord says they are.

And so there's a crisis with who we are. And if we're saints, believers.

We can discover who we are in the Word of God. The Word of God tells us who

we are. This Word of God is like a mirror. When we look into the mirror,

it's a reflection of who we are in Christ Jesus.

And so the culture that we live in says you must find yourself or discover yourself.

And we discover ourselves in this culture by our experiences.

We discover ourselves by our political affiliation, by our relationships,

by our past, by our social media, other people's opinion, what Pookie and Ray

Ray and him talking about.

We feel like that's who we are. Maybe you had a dad that told you something

crazy, maybe a mom that said something crazy to you, and we begin to discover

ourselves in these ways, but we are not to discover ourselves in that way.

We're to discover ourselves in Christ, because it's in Christ we live,

it's in him we move, it's in him we have our being or our existence.

And so society says, find yourself, but scripture says, find yourself in Christ.

And so identity is how you see yourself.

That is our identity. How do you see yourself?

The way the word sees you and says about you may be different than how you see yourself.

And it's time for you and I to see ourselves the way Jesus sees us,

to see ourselves the way the Lord created us.

He said, we're a masterpiece in his sight, and we got to see ourself that way.

We've got to bring those to what we think of ourself and how God sees us and

bring them together so that we can operate fully in the way Lord wants us to

operate here on the earth.

And so stop seeing yourself any other way than what the Lord Jesus says about you.

And I think a lot of times we hope to see ourselves this way. this way.

I just hope to see myself as a masterpiece. I hope to see myself created in the image of God.

I hope to see myself the righteousness of God. Stop hoping it.

This is who you are.

You don't have to hope it. It is who you are.

You may not feel this way, but it is who you are.

And over the last several weeks, we've been talking about who you are in Christ.

We talked about 2 Corinthians 5, 17, which says, therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, he is a new creation.

All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

And so if you are in Christ, if you gave your life to Christ,

you are in Christ, you have been engrafted into the body of Christ,

old things have passed away.

However you used to be, however you used to act, whatever you used to experience has passed away.

Even as old as 30 seconds ago, has passed away, all things have become new.

You are a new, unprecedented, unheard of, brand new creature in Christ.

And Corinthians also tells us, the Apostle Paul shares with us,

that our outward man is perishing, but our inward man is being renewed day by day.

And so every single day, you're being renewed, you're being created new,

every single day, whatever you did yesterday.

Yes, you may have to apologize for.

Yes, there might be some consequences for, but you are a brand new creature every time you wake up.

His mercies are new every morning.

He's not giving you what you deserved yesterday because his mercies are new.

So you're a brand new creature in Christ. Say this after me. I am.

I am. I am a brand new creature. I am.

In Christ Jesus. If you ever get lost of who am I, why am I here?

No, I am a brand new creature in Christ Jesus, and I am being renewed every single day.

And we found out a several weeks ago, and all these messages are truelifefc.org.

You can check them out. You can get them there for free.

And the notes for today's message is on the seat in front of you.

If you tap your phone, you can get today's notes.

And at the bottom of the screen, you'll see there on the lower third,

it'll say how to get today's notes.

But we're also born again. Say born again.

Now that simply means we are born from above. We've experienced two births.

We've experienced a physical birth.

That's how you and I got on the planet.

And if you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, you have also experienced

a spiritual birth, which is a new birth, which simply means you are born from above.

And so you're not just born in Mississippi where I was born or the various places where you were born.

You're actually born from above and you cannot separate your identity from where you are from.

Where you're from will always tell me a little bit about you.

So if I'm born from above, I'm from above. I'm from heaven.

So you know a little bit about me. You know about my dad, right?

He's a big dad, and he loves me, and he takes care of me, and I don't have nothing

to fear because I am born from above.

And so 1 John tells me those that have been born of God overcomes the world,

and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

And so I'm born again. I am victorious. Say that. and I am victorious.

Over everything. Anything you go through, anything that comes your way,

you already have the victory over it.

Anything that just pops his head up, you are victorious over it because you

are born again and you are born from above.

And then we talked about being complete in Christ.

Colossians 2, 9 and 10 says, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead

bodily and you are complete in him who is ahead of all principality and power.

That means you're not lacking anything.

You're not deficient. You're not inadequate. No loss.

Nothing is missing in your life. You are complete in him.

You don't have to have her. You don't have to have them. You don't have to have him.

In Christ, you are complete.

You're not missing anything. And so I want you to understand that you might

be having family issues, you might be going through a different time,

you might be losing some property, whatever the case may be.

You are complete in Christ, whether you have the property or not.

I'm complete in Christ Jesus, whether my mama talked to me or not.

I'm complete. Come on, somebody. I'm complete in Christ Jesus.

You have to know who you are in him. I'm complete in Christ Jesus.

And I was praying this morning, Willie, and you came up in my heart in prayer.

And I heard the Lord tell me to tell you that old things have passed away.

Whatever you have gone through in the past, I know it's been hard.

I know it's been rough and tough. And I just know that by the Spirit.

I know that you've been beat and hit and kicked down to your knees to the point

that you didn't think you could overcome.

But the Lord told me to tell you that today is a new day and that you are healed today.

He said that you're not in the healing process. You are healed.

And restoration is headed your way. Come on, let's give the Lord some praise.

You are complete in him.

And so you're complete in him, and if I'm complete in him, I don't have to look

outside of him to discover who I am.

And then a few weeks ago, we talked about we're just like Jesus,

that we've been conformed to the image of his son.

You and I are just like Jesus.

Now, this is wild. You mean I'm like Jesus? Yes.

You're created to look like Jesus. You are called to look like him.

People should look at you and say, man, there's something different about you.

What is it? I'm like Jesus.

Amen. And you should be bold about it. Yeah, I'm like, what do you need?

What do you need? Because I'm like Jesus, I'm going to give it to you, praise God.

Whatever it is you need, I'm like Jesus, I'm giving it away.

Amen. man, this is how people should view you.

You're like Jesus. You're the body of Christ in the earth. Jesus does not physically

walk in the earth, but he is in you.

And you're his hands and you're his feet and you're just like Jesus.

So whenever you're tempted to find, I don't know who I am, I'm like Jesus. And Jesus has need of me.

And if there's still breath in my lungs, There's still a purpose for my life,

and I'm going to act like him. I'm going to be conformed to the image of his son.

And in Galatians 2.20, we found out that I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And so it's not about me living, it's him living in me. And so my identity changed

and your identity changed at the cross.

You are not living for yourself.

You're living for Christ Jesus. The person you used to be no longer exists.

The person you want to be no longer matters.

Because we live for him. Say amen to that.

And so we talked about that a few weeks ago. And then last week we talked about

your life is not your own.

In 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, Paul tells us, don't you realize that your

body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God?

You do not belong to yourself.

Say this. I do not belong to myself.

For God bought you with a high price.

So you must honor God with your body.

You've been purchased. 1 Peter 1 tells us, 18 to 19, says you were not bought

with corruptible things like silver and gold or money.

You were purchased with the precious, and I'll add the sacred blood of Jesus.

Us. There's no cost that we could pay in the natural for the blood of Jesus.

And he purchased us. So we do not even belong to ourself.

Our life is not even our own.

He bought us and paid for us. So not only are we a new creation in Christ,

that's the spirit realm.

Now our bodies have been purchased.

And so God has placed his spirit on the inside of our body, and now in our soul,

we have to renew our mind to it.

We have to agree with what God has already done on the inside of us.

And today I'm going to read some scripture. It'll be on the screen,

but I want to share something different with you today about who you are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 1.1, let's put it on the screen, Romans 1.1, it says,

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,

separated to the gospel of God.

Let's go to Philippians 1.1.

Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ

Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and the deacons.

Let's go to Titus 1.1. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,

to those who are called sanctified by God, the Father, and preserved in Christ Jesus. Galatians 1.10.

Galatians 1.10, for I do not persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men,

for if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Jude 1.1, Jude 1.1, Jude,

a bondservant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James to those who are called,

sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1.1.

2 Peter 1.1. Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those

who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God

and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And let's end with James 1.1.

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which

are scattered abroad. Greetings.

All of these verses tell us about these men of God who have called themselves bondservants.

Say bondservant.

Say it one more time. Bondservant.

These verses describe how Paul, James, Timothy, Peter, Titus, Jude.

Are all bondservants fully devoted to serving Jesus.

They all begin by identifying whose he is before explaining what he does.

They identify whose he is before explaining what they do.

And they tell us their assignment after they tell us their identity.

So their identity is, I belong to Jesus.

Their assignment is, I'm called to be an apostle. And so they first identify who they belong to.

Say this, I belong to Jesus.

Now, belonging completely to Christ is an honor. Amen.

It's an honor to belong to Jesus. And they knew that as an honor,

and therefore they called themselves bond servants.

Now, there's a difference between a bond servant and a slave, all right?

You are not a slave.

You are a bond servant, or one definition would be bond slave.

And so we all have an idea, especially growing up in America,

we all have an idea of what slavery is. Slavery is control, right?

Legal property of another without any care, without any friendship,

without any love, without any support.

We all understand that slavery is forced labor, forced to obey, right?

There's no autonomy in slavery. There's no freedom in slavery.

Slavery is a force-controlled, manipulative master over you,

making you do some things that you have no idea what you're doing or that you even want to do.

That's slavery. But notice these men of God did not say that they were slaves.

They said that they were bond servants.

And so we know a slave is not simply a hired employee who could clock out whenever he wanted.

We know that slavery is control and abuse, but they didn't identify with slavery.

They said that they were bond servants. What does that mean?

A bond servant is a person who serves another by voluntary choice.

Willingly serves a master because they love him.

And so a bondservant is an individual who will serve by choice,

voluntarily signing up to serve by choice.

When Paul and the other gentlemen called themselves bondservants of Christ,

they were not saying they were forced into it.

They chose to give their life fully to Jesus because they trusted him.

It was about love and loyalty, not control and abuse.

And so you and I are not just sons and daughters. We're also bond servants.

Because of what the Lord Jesus has done for us, saved us, delivered us, set us free,

redeemed us from the curse, given us life and life more abundantly,

forgiven us of all of our sins, past, present, and future,

given us prosperity, given us the Holy Spirit, given us fresh new life.

Because of what Jesus has done for us, we are gladly responding to him that

we are bondservants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever he tells me to do, I'll do. Wherever he tells me to go, I'll go.

Whatever he tells me to give, I'll give. I'm not doing that because I'm a slave.

I'm not doing that because I'm afraid. I'm doing that because I'm a bondservant.

And I'm appreciative of what the Lord Jesus has done for me.

Come on, say amen to that.

So when you are a bond servant, you're choosing to give your life fully to Jesus.

He is my master. Now, we don't like that term, but Jesus is my master.

Say that if you believe it.

Jesus is my master.

He's my master.

He's the one that I belong to.

He owns me. Come on, Keith. I want you to wrap your mind around this.

See, we're so used to autonomy, and we got to be free, and whom the Son has

set free is free indeed. Yes, you're free from your sin, but you're not free

from being a bondservant.

You're free from eternal damnation, but you're not free from serving the Lord

Jesus for all that he's done for you and I.

We are bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I don't just work for Jesus.

I belong to Jesus. Amen. I don't just work for him. I belong to him.

I'm his. I'm the apple of his eye. I'm precious in his sight.

I'm a masterpiece in his sight he birthed me he bought me he paid for me I belong

to him and because I belong to him whatever he tells me to do I'll do,

I don't do what I want to do some way some another we feel like we became an

adult and we just do what we want I tell my kids that all the time,

can we do this and that no well why not I don't even get to do what I want to

do amen so you're not going to do what you want because I can't even do what I want to do,

I want to sleep in and I don't want to go to work I don't want to pay all these

bills and I don't want to feed you,

amen come on LaPorse you know what I'm talking about I want to stay in the best.

But I love you. And I'm a bond servant. And the Lord Jesus said,

take care of my children, praise God. So I'm going to take care of them. Amen.

But we don't get to do what we want to do. Stop trying. I didn't feel like doing

this or that. None of that matters.

There was a particular time that the Lord asked me to apologize to someone,

and I didn't do nothing wrong.

I didn't. I still don't think I did anything wrong. But the Lord said,

I need you to go apologize to them.

Well, I'm yours to command.

You own me. You purchased me. You bought me. You paid a high price for me.

I'm a bond servant. If that's what you want me to do, that's what I'm going to do. Amen.

There was one particular time we had a guest speaker come.

This was a long time ago, so none of y'all were here, so don't try to figure out who it was.

And this particular guest speaker said after we had given him a nice honorarium

and afterwards he got home and he said that I owed him some money.

He said, yeah, you owe me some money. I said, what? He said,

he bought some things that he thought I should have paid for.

And I said, no, I don't owe you nothing.

And he said, well, yeah, you owe me. I said, let me call him.

Thank God he didn't answer the phone because he was going to get a whole mouthful

from this bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he didn't answer and I called again he didn't answer again because he

had sent me a message they didn't owe me some money oh I'm sorry did I owe him

some money he didn't answer and

he didn't answer again I left it alone the Lord said give him the money,

I said Lord no I don't owe him the money he told me how much I owed him he had

a dollar amount too and the Lord said give it to him I said no I said I don't owe him that,

I said no we blessed him. We blessed him.

And I don't owe him. The Lord said, give him the money.

And I said, Lord, no, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. I don't know if you're listening to what's going on here.

And I had to remember, I'm a bond servant. I willfully serve the Lord.

Whatever he tells me to do, I do.

And I cut him the check. I even overnighted it.

Because if I owe you, I want you to have it now and leave me alone, okay?

I overnighted the check to him, praise God, and I got it out.

He received it and was like, well, no, man.

Well, you know, actually, and then he tried to backpedal. I said,

no, you better cash that check.

The very next week, the Lord sent us a check for 10 times the amount that he

said we owe him. Hallelujah.

I'll tell you, we sent him $300. The Lord sent $3,000 to us the very next week.

Amen. And the Lord said, listen, if you just do what I say do,

even to your hurt, sometimes you got to get rid of your ego.

You got to get rid of your pride. you got to be someone of no reputation.

And I don't care what you think about me. I'm going to do what the Lord says for me to do.

It's why I'm here on the earth to do what God wants me to do on the earth.

And God says, send him the money.

I did. And the Lord sent us the money right back more than what we said. Amen.

And when we received it, it was out of the blue. And when we received the Lord

said, that's the money that you sent to the God. I'm giving it right back to you. Praise God.

And when he gives it back, he multiplies it. Amen?

Hallelujah. And so somebody shout, I'm a bond servant.

I don't just work for Jesus. I belong to Jesus. My life is his.

My will is submitted to his.

My assignments come from him.

I'm a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who are you? You are a bond servant.

I'm here to serve the Lord cheerfully, gladly, because of all he's done for me.

Christianity isn't about doing things for Jesus.

It's about recognizing that your life belongs to Jesus.

Your entire existence belongs to him.

So if I belong to Jesus and I'm valuable to him,

then you would have to consider that he wants you well taken care of.

I have children. We have a daughter in Connecticut.

Do I want her broke, busting, and disgusted, living on the street,

struggling with cancer and all that stuff? No.

She belongs to me. I want to make sure she's well taken care of.

The Lord Jesus wants his sons and daughters and bond servants to be well taken care of. Amen.

You should start expecting, man, I am precious in his sight.

Not because you're so good looking, and you are good looking,

by the way, but not because you're so good looking, just because I belong to

him and there's an assignment that he's given me.

There's a purpose that he has for me, and I'm his, and so I want to view my

life as precious because he views my life as precious.

Amen? Say, I belong to him.

Philippians chapter 2, 5 through 8. Listen to this. Philippians chapter 2, 5 through 8.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form

of God, Jesus in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a what?

Bond servant. and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance

as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,

even the death of the cross.

Notice he did not consider it robbery. He did not consider it a raw deal to be equal with God.

But watch this.

He flushed himself of all reputation. He said, I'm a man of no reputation.

Say that. Say I'm a man or woman. I'm.

Of no reputation. Say that, of no reputation.

That means you don't care what people think about you, say about you.

You know, I just turned 49, and I just don't care.

And I was told when I get a little older, I'm really not going to care.

That's what I was told, Susan, I'm really not going to care.

In my 20s, I cared a whole lot of what you thought about. In my 30s,

I could start saying no, Like, no.

It was the first time I could say no in my 30s. Like, no.

Well, why do you say no? I don't know. I just said no. Yeah.

When I hit 40, no and none of your business. Okay? Are you coming?

No. Why not? None ya. Okay?

Now I'm close to 50s. I don't care.

I don't care. And so we've got to get to the point, not being mean or abusive,

but we've got to get to the point that I don't care what y'all think about me.

I got to do what Jesus is telling me to do.

And Jesus made himself for no reputation. How did he do that?

He took on the form of a bond servant.

He literally said, not my will, but Father, your will be done.

We know the dilemma he had in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He said, if there's any way we can miss this, I want to miss it.

But then he said, not my will, but thy will be done.

He became a bondservant. I am here to serve willfully, gladly, cheerfully.

Whatever you have me do, I will do because I'm a bondservant.

And notice Jesus made himself a bondservant. That means you and I are going

to have to make ourselves bondservants.

Bondservants. There was a time.

That I, before I got into ministry, I was a young, in my early 20s,

the youth pastor at the time, I went to a very large church,

and it was thousands of people at this church, and the youth pastor at the time

asked me to come serve in the youth ministry.

He said, Devon, would you come serve?

And I didn't want to do that. I mean, I was, you know, I had a whole lot of

other stuff I wanted to do, like sleep, you know?

I didn't want to do none of that. I didn't want to serve. I didn't want to help

him. I didn't want to help the youth.

But I always had a heart, you know, for the things of God and tender.

And I said, well, if the youth pastor is asking me to serve,

then maybe God's asking me to serve.

Are you listening to me? Maybe the Lord's asking me to serve. So I said, yeah.

I said, what do you want me to do? He said, come on Wednesday nights and just

set up the chairs. I did that for like a year.

You know, just set up the chairs for the youth. And it was probably a hundred

or so youth in that group.

And I just set up the chairs and every week just, and then he asked me to be

security, you know, so I'm security for the youth, right?

And I'm just doing that because I felt like if he asked me, the Lord asked me.

And if the Lord asks me, then I'm supposed to be a bondservant.

Whatever he asks me to do, I need to have a yes in my spirit.

You should have a yes in your spirit. Whatever the Lord asks you to do, a yes in your spirit.

And I begin to serve. And that was my introduction into ministry.

Begin to serve and eventually he asked me to share and to speak.

Now, that took years, but it eventually happened to share and speak and et cetera.

And then I got to going and there's an anointing on my life.

And look where we are today. Praise God.

But it started with just being a servant, a bond. Whatever you ask me to do,

I'm willing to do because a bond servant chooses to serve out of love, not fear.

Out of love, not fear. There was a particular time I was working in corporate

America, and my pastor was having a baby.

His wife was in labor, but someone else in the church was in the hospital, and his wife was dying.

And so my pastor, I'm working a full-time job. My pastor reaches out and says,

I cannot be with this gentleman.

He calls me, can you be with him.

Well, I got a job, right? I got a job. Wait, pastor, why are you calling me?

Don't you know I got a job?

I'm supposed to work. I mean, wait, why don't you call somebody else?

Because I got a job. I mean, you got somebody on staff, right?

Somebody you could call.

Well, when he called me, I felt like the Lord called me and said,

I need you to be over there and help that man.

Well, what did I do? Well, I got to work? Or do I tell work, the Lord has need of me?

See, I'm preaching, I'm preaching a higher level. Y'all want to hear that because y'all want to go to work.

I'm trying to show you how to get out from under the grip of work.

Now, don't quit your job. I did not say that.

But you know you got some mental health days, some PTO days,

some vacation days, some sick days. Come on, somebody.

And I said, I said, well, Pastor, come in. I said, I'll call in to work.

I'll be there. I'll call in to work. I said, I'm not showing up.

And they said, well, why not? I said, I'm going to use one of my sick days.

Are you sick? I'm going to use one of the sick days, okay?

And I ended up not showing up, and I went and hung out with this man.

Listen, I had no, well, how do you have training sitting with a man and his wife is dying?

You don't have training for that. Nobody has that kind of training.

His wife was passed. I went to the hospital, and I just sat with him.

Lord, what do you want me to say? He said, keep your mouth shut.

I sat there all day. His wife passed that day.

We went back to his house, sat with him all day, and we might have said five words to each other.

I just sat there all day.

Lord, I need to go make that money. I'm trying to get promoted at work.

No, no, no. The Lord said, I need a bond servant. Thank you.

To be with this man. And I sat with him and just sat there.

What am I saying? Whatever the Lord has for you, you got to have a yes in your spirit.

You got to be willing to just say, yes, I'll call in the work.

I'll do that later. Lord, you've got something for me. I'll do that next time.

I've got a yes in my spirit.

And many of you did that was in the wilderness with us. I said,

guys, we're meeting Sunday at 3 p.m. You know what you said? Yes.

We met Sundays at 3 p.m. at another church in another location.

You're saying, I'm on serve. Whatever the Lord tells me to do,

I'm going to do this. Amen to that.

God doesn't force us into servitude.

He don't force us into servitude. Matter of fact, if you don't want to do it,

he'll go get somebody else.

And I told the Lord, I'm one of his go-to guys. If you want to bless Sterling,

but Sterling don't want to do it, come to me.

I'll take his blessing and mine. Amen.

Say, I'm one of God's go-to guys.

I told him, I said, you come to me? I'll say yes, because I know there's always

a reward attached to it. Say amen to that.

He invites us into relationship. He doesn't force us.

He invites us. And true freedom is found in surrendering fully to Jesus.

See, we think true freedom is found in autonomy, doing what we want to do.

That's actually the biggest bondage that you can get in is doing what you want

to do. Have you ever just done what you wanted to do? No fruit.

It's crazy, right?

No good results from that. But true freedom, you know, true freedom has boundaries.

I could talk about that later. But true freedom has boundaries.

True freedom is found in surrendering fully to Jesus.

And I love this part. When you become a bond servant, watch this,

the master is responsible for you.

Glory to God. That means he's going to take care of you.

He's going to watch over you, provide for you, make sure that everything is

okay. Make sure you have the money you need, the energy you need,

the wisdom you need, the patience you need.

He's going to make sure of it because he becomes responsible for you.

See, when you're just a slave, you're just property.

Don't care nothing about you, work you till you die.

But when you're a bondservant, there's love and the master is responsible for you.

So that means when you're a bondservant, you no longer have to take care of yourself.

Glory to God, he will take care of you.

I want to spend a quick moment here. Stop trying to take care of yourself. Like, seriously, stop.

God has promised to take care of you. We sung today, even the lilies,

if it watches over the lilies, how much more?

How much more will he, that's Matthew 6, how much more will he take care of you?

A few weeks ago, I started, if I get headaches in the back of my head,

can I get transparent with you? Back here, if I get headaches back here, I'm stressed out.

And I'm like, oh, I got a headache back here. I'm like, Lord,

why do I have a headache back here? And he started telling me all these things

I'm trying to take care of myself.

You're trying to do all this by yourself, and I never asked you to do it by yourself.

Church, friends, I believe we're supposed to completely depend on the Lord to take care of us.

If you have children, your children are not thinking at all.

About their next meal, about what underwear they're going to wear the next day.

It's just already automatically clean.

They're not considering that. They know mom and dad or mom or dad is going to take care of them.

And they're not considering it not one moment. Now, they're always hungry,

but they know there's food.

Or if they wasn't, we're going to provide, and I'll go without.

Out in order for them to eat. Amen.

And so I believe that's how we're supposed to live. I don't think we're supposed

to take any care of our life.

Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, what you shall wear.

I believe we're supposed to

completely and totally and utterly depend on the Lord to take care of us.

Just rest in him and rely in him. And when we got this building,

you remember I was pressing and looking and searching and knocking and kicking

and blowing and huffing and a puffing.

Lord, where do you want us? And finally, the Lord said, the end of the story

is not going to be Devon found the building.

It's not going to end that way. Devon was up all night and he found it.

And he just, you know, that's not going to be the story. The story is going

to be the Lord's going to find it and it's going to be revealed to me.

And that's what happened. The Lord found it.

It was revealed to me. And then we pursued it in Jesus' name.

And so you no longer have to take care of yourself. Say this after me. I don't have to.

Take care of myself. The Lord will take care of me.

The Lord will befriend you, protect you, provide for you, and direct you when

you commit to be a bond servant.

I'm just, I'm here for you. Lord, I'm here for you. Say that, Lord, I'm here for you.

You're not here to just make a lot of money, although there's nothing wrong

with making a lot of money.

You're not here just to be in the best shape, although you need to be in the best shape.

You're not here just to accumulate a bunch of friends, although a wise man will have a lot of friends.

You're here for the purpose of the Lord.

Whatever he tells you to do, a bond servant's willing to do it.

Wherever he tells you to give, whatever it is, a bondservant's willing to give.

We, you remember the story as being a bondservant.

We had a minister come to our ministry several years ago, and we gave him a

nice, I don't know why I'm telling these ministry stories, but just listen to this one. It's good.

We gave him a nice honorarium there, and the Lord said, I want you to rip up

that honorarium you gave him.

And I said, okay. And he said, and give him more. I'm like, oh, goodness.

So we had given him a good amount, and the Lord told us, I'll tell you,

he said, give him $10,000.

And I said, Lord, we need that $10,000. The Lord said, give him $10,000.

Now, what we gave him was not $10,000 initially.

And I said, Lord, I said, now, you know, we need the $10,000.

And I kept hearing, give him $10,000. So I went to Stacey.

I said, Stacey, the Lord said, we're supposed to rip up the check we gave him,

give him $10,000. She said, do it quickly or we will change our minds.

And so, many of you there, I did it publicly. I said, man, rip up the check.

I said, the Lord told me to give you $10,000, and I said, the check is,

we'll get it to you in the mail, and we shouted and praised God,

and those of you here remember that. It was an exciting time.

We blessed him, $10,000. I said, oh, Lord, we really needed that $10,000.

Lord, I don't have a mega church, man. I mean, come on.

You know what we're working with. come on help me Lord right what was it a year

later the Lord blessed us with a hundred thousand dollar check a year later praise the Lord,

listen give it give put your hands together.

Someone said, I believe in this ministry. Don't even live in North Carolina.

I believe in this ministry. I watch online. I believe in you.

Here's $100,000 to do what God's called you to do. Amen.

When you become a bond servant. Now, what if I held on to the $10,000?

I never got the $100,000. But if you want to break barriers,

you're going to have to break barriers.

You have to break your own barriers if you're going to receive a barrier broken from the Lord.

You're going to have to do more than you normally do in order to see God do.

The capacity lies with you.

What does it say in Luke chapter 6? It says, the measure you give will be measured back to you.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

And so we needed some big money to come in. We're going to have to give some big money.

But at the end of the day, this is the Lord's ministry.

And I'm just a bond servant.

Just to do whatever he tells me to do, he was setting us up.

And then by God's grace, a year

or two later, someone says, I want to give $250,000 to the ministry. Amen.

Amen. Yes. Give the Lord praise for that.

What am I saying? You got to be willing to do whatever the Lord tells you to do.

Whatever he tells you to do, do it.

John chapter 2. What did the disciples tell Mary? I mean, Jesus said,

John 2 · chapter mention

we're going to turn this water into wine.

And they looked at Mary and Mary said, whatever he tells you to do, do it.

And that's what being a bond servant is all about. Whatever he tells you and how to do, do it.

And I've been endeavoring to, I don't always agree.

Did you hear me? I don't always agree. When he said, give the 10,

I didn't agree with that.

But I'm a living sacrifice.

When he told me to send that one minister back the money, he said,

well, no, I didn't agree with that.

But I'm a living sacrifice.

When he tells me to go apologize to somebody that I didn't think I did anything

wrong to, I didn't agree with that.

But he's not looking for our agreement. He's looking for our submission.

Submission means I don't agree, but I'll obey. I'll do it anyway with a good attitude. Amen.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 7, 22. 1 Corinthians 7, 22 through 23.

And remember, if you were a slave when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord.

And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ.

God paid a high price for you, so don't be enslaved by the world.

Notice, when you are in Christ, you become a bondservant or a slave of Christ,

but not slave in American view of slavery, in the bondservant view of slavery,

that he'll take care of you.

And he'll watch over you and he'll provide for you.

And he's the one that will do all of it through you. And then he'll allow,

because we're participating with him, he'll allow us to share in the glory of it.

Amen. That's powerful stuff right now. Jesus isn't just the one I serve.

He's the one I belong to because he paid a high price for me.

And remember, you were once a slave to sin, but now you are a bondservant to righteousness.

You are a bondservant to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is how you experience true life.