0:00

Nine as we head towards a

0:02

presidential election in November. One thing

0:04

you can be sure of: Twenty

0:06

Twenty Four will be a tumultuous

0:08

year. How will your hard earned

0:10

savings? Fair? You already see the

0:12

impacts of inflation at the pump.

0:14

the grocery store. The dollar continues

0:16

to lose buying power quicker than

0:18

pages getting Greece. How are you

0:21

protecting your savings? Consider diversifying with

0:23

gold for my good friends at

0:25

Birch Gold. For decades, gold has

0:27

been the choice of investors in

0:29

central banks. To hedge against

0:31

inflation. Now. You can

0:33

protect yourself, your family, and get a

0:36

tax sheltered Ira with the help of

0:38

Birch Gold. All you have to do

0:40

is text word ground that G R

0:42

Age Am to Ninety Eight, Ninety Eight,

0:45

Ninety Eight and Birch Go will send

0:47

you a free no questions asked info

0:49

kid on gold. They'll even help you

0:51

convert an existing array or four One

0:54

K into an Ira in gold. In

0:56

the best part, you don't have to

0:58

pay a penny out of pocket with

1:00

an A Plus rating from. The Better

1:03

Business Bureau. Thousands of satisfied customers you

1:05

can trust. Birch Gold. Just text Award

1:07

Ground To Ninety Eight Ninety Eight Ninety

1:09

Eight to claim your free. Invoke it.

1:11

That's Graham. G R A I J

1:13

M To Ninety Eight Ninety Eight Ninety

1:15

Eight Right Now. To

1:45

my say God is good. All

1:48

the time. right?

1:51

Now we have another mighty man of

1:53

God getting ready to take the stage

1:55

and bring the word he's here with

1:57

is a lovely wife, a lizard. They're

1:59

awesome. Easier with his best friend.

2:01

Hot seat. Love

2:03

our sea sauce! And

2:06

alyssa. Awesome

2:08

people. I had all the guys from

2:10

the King's Council. Graham is a New

2:13

York Times bestselling author. He's an army

2:15

combat veteran. He's an outspoken patriot of

2:17

this great country. He goes to the

2:19

Deer America Podcast. He's an incredible husband,

2:21

father, follower of Christ and I'm so

2:24

blessed to call him a friend. Ladies

2:26

and gentlemen, Mr. Graham Alan. Moore's

2:55

Grow Up In your last thing, you

2:57

know what the odds are for you

2:59

to wake up every morning? You have

3:01

any idea that says you have to

3:03

wake up and going to sleep is.

3:07

Because we have no control of it

3:09

whatsoever. To. Avoid.

3:30

All right, so piss.

3:32

Off of you know

3:35

that Daytona.will serve. You

3:37

know, Sort

3:42

of five hundred people. So

3:48

you know I'm used to talking for

3:50

quite a long time. I got a

3:52

message here and I had one direction

3:54

that I was gonna go and I

3:56

know it's gonna go this way. but

3:58

you know, the war. No

4:05

god I guess is what does this? Why don't you

4:07

see my little thoroughly? Don't want to do this again.

4:09

It's like I think you should do it again or

4:11

photo new of us to do to get my guess

4:13

is due to guess. I did it

4:15

again so we gotta hold a message to

4:17

die but before do that I want to

4:19

talk about are just a little for the

4:21

say So first of all was given are

4:23

the key war to the back bliss give

4:25

a road applause for your plans to pass

4:27

or terrorists. Casino. Said.

4:31

The reason I say that is

4:33

because of this. So apparently I

4:35

was informed when it got announced

4:37

the I was going to come

4:39

here that there were some people

4:41

who were no had some problems

4:43

with it right? there was people

4:45

there were a little upset. It's

4:47

little ah you know salt in

4:49

their Syria's wherever you are Call

4:51

this because we're happy right? frame

4:53

of our at a church? Oh

4:55

no. We. Can't have that

4:58

drag queen story our sure

5:00

grandma would pretend. I absolutely

5:02

not return. Have that happen.

5:05

So anyway so I talked about it

5:07

on the show. Next thing I know

5:09

the Mayor finds out about it. Known

5:11

as the Against of the Mayor was

5:13

very hospitable barely and are look hey

5:15

people can rise up against his will.

5:17

People cannot stop The word of God

5:19

Forbid please No way. So.

5:23

I gotta say seemed okay. People.

5:26

Some people are upset on door barriers

5:28

to go in there and start license.

5:30

And the. Lord. Is with you, the Lord

5:33

loves you and and be super super com

5:35

about it but then I thought you know

5:37

what would way can I make it easy

5:39

opacity Irvin and so he doesn't have to

5:41

hear about it and like how can I

5:43

be the least controversial way possible and I

5:45

was like you know what. I

5:47

see it. That. I need

5:49

a spear. When

5:52

I preach because there is

5:55

nothing more formidable. Real.

5:57

man with a spear somebody could

5:59

walk with an AR right now and you

6:01

would be more afraid of the man with the

6:03

spear than you would with the AR. Alright

6:06

now why do I have a spear? Well because

6:08

you know it's me. Why not? Right? So I

6:10

got to thinking about the body of Christ and

6:12

I got to thinking about all this kind of

6:14

stuff and and how many people know that the

6:16

body of Christ is many things right? Got the

6:18

hands, the feet, all the above but most

6:21

people want to be the mouth

6:23

right? That's what most people want to be. They

6:25

want to be the mouth. They want to be the person talking

6:28

but without the whole body none

6:30

of it works right? Now

6:33

I've heard that the 9 a.m. was

6:35

the big service. Without the whole body

6:37

none of it works right? Okay there

6:40

we go. So an interesting thing about

6:42

a spear is when people

6:44

see a spear everybody hears this saying all

6:46

the time. How many of you heard the

6:48

phrase the tip of the spear? That's

6:51

like the ugh that's the part that everybody wants

6:53

to be the tip of the spear but the

6:55

tip of the spear is

6:57

this little bitty

6:59

little part right there. Now

7:02

there's a whole other thing here. In fact

7:04

I googled this because I did not know.

7:06

I know a lot of things but you

7:08

know spear-ism is not like my most

7:11

thing. So the spear is actually comprised of

7:13

a few parts alright? You got the point

7:15

or the tip as people call it. You

7:17

got the shaft and then this part is

7:19

called the heel or the

7:21

foot. Now this is balancing purposes right?

7:23

Spear has to be able to be

7:25

balanced but a spear

7:28

by itself please don't

7:30

please don't cause me insurance a spear

7:32

by itself although it looks really nice

7:34

if left completely alone it's completely

7:38

useless right? A

7:40

spear by itself is completely useless. Now we're

7:42

breaking a mold today. Most people use this

7:44

toward the end of the service. We're gonna

7:46

start off with a bang here. In

7:49

fact this spear for

7:52

those of you who can see it this

7:54

spear looks really nice. It's brand new it's

7:56

super sharp. Yeah That's real.

7:58

Don't touch that. Ah,

8:01

No. Days, those scores know bruises but.

8:04

You. Know the funny thing about this is

8:06

a spear. Most people don't notice a spear

8:08

that has. No. Danes. A.

8:11

Sphere that has no bruises, no

8:13

scars if you will. Will.

8:15

This a spear that's done nothing. To.

8:18

Spur The has done in excess. More.

8:21

Importantly, A

8:23

spear. Is. No good if

8:25

you don't have. A. Lot you're.

8:29

right? Who is

8:31

the most viking looking?

8:35

At. Chili's looking person in the

8:37

odd at first in various

8:39

through suited up here for

8:41

nice ladies is. Hop.

8:47

Five First and so I'm gonna need

8:49

you to give me the most Apollo

8:51

look in stance with the spear that

8:53

you could possibly you can possibly do.

8:56

So now we've got the spear. The

8:58

now we've got our lot. You're right

9:00

here. Okay, he's going to take his

9:02

stance. Dot. Where

9:04

we go for that hotel beautifully

9:06

Mars now this is her his

9:08

working else could accompany. Plan is

9:10

you to hold it just like

9:13

that or us. Now this looks

9:15

really good does it not? But

9:23

preparation with no action and least

9:25

another. Write. Papers

9:28

were no actually Snow Express without all

9:30

of this as you've got a spare.

9:32

Just got the launcher. But.

9:34

If you surround yourself by the

9:37

wrong people and or you don't

9:39

have the right person died and

9:41

you. Know. Person. I've.

9:43

Been sued before. So

9:46

I cannot status enough when I

9:48

point you in the wrong direction.

9:50

Design Not God. Do Not Throw

9:52

The spear. So

9:55

we're going to rotate. flies

9:58

s Now

10:01

see, a lot of us have

10:03

good intentions, we have good purpose,

10:06

but we surround ourselves with

10:08

the wrong people telling us the wrong thing. And

10:11

when you got the wrong people telling you the wrong

10:13

thing, although you have your skills, although

10:16

you have, you look good, you're ready, your

10:18

form is good, people

10:20

can get hurt and people can get

10:22

led the wrong way. Because at the end of

10:24

the day, it's not about what we want, it's

10:26

about what God wants.

10:29

Now I'm not the Lord, but

10:32

we're just going to represent that

10:34

the Lord is now guiding Christian

10:36

to the right target to go

10:38

against. And Christian, whenever you're ready,

10:42

let her have it. Do it! Let's

10:48

do it again, one more time, one more time. Yeah,

10:52

it's done! Ladies and gentlemen,

10:54

Christian, round of applause. You

10:57

can stab it one time, Christian, just go for it.

11:00

Oh yeah, so right! Oh man,

11:05

I bet you

11:07

guys didn't think you were

11:09

going to see that first thing. All right,

11:13

so why do we talk about this? In fact,

11:15

I'm going to remove this because I'm going to

11:17

kill myself for it. So we'll just do that

11:20

right there. All right,

11:23

what's the purpose of this Gram? What's the purpose? So

11:26

now I'm going to give you the official title

11:28

of my sermon today. Are you guys ready? Okay,

11:33

the official title of this, and I need

11:35

you to just collect yourselves and be

11:38

ready to hear this because I know this is going to

11:40

be rough on some people. The title

11:42

of my sermon today is, You Are Not

11:44

The Main Character. One

11:51

more time, it wasn't loud enough. You Are

11:55

Not The Main Character.

11:58

All right, let's talk about it. this. Here we

12:01

go! Okay, so I'm

12:03

at this age... how many people got kids? Okay,

12:06

alright. How many people love their kids? Some

12:09

hands went down. How

12:12

many people have movies that you

12:14

grew up loving and you've tried to start

12:16

to introduce them to your children a little

12:18

bit there? Okay, alright. How many people still

12:20

love your kids after that experience? Okay,

12:23

alright. So my children are at this age

12:25

where I'm starting to introduce them to like,

12:27

you know, the good movies, right? Like I

12:29

got a 13 or 12 year old and

12:31

like, alright, it's time. We've

12:35

got enough of this kitty stuff. It's

12:37

time to watch the good movies, man.

12:39

All this other kind of stuff. And

12:42

my children have started doing this thing where

12:44

Alyssa's gonna start laughing in a minute. Where

12:47

every time we watch a movie, the

12:49

movie will start. And how many of

12:51

you know sometimes the movie leaves up the

12:53

things and it introduces people as it

12:55

goes on? And my kids always ask

12:57

me, Dad, is that the main character? No,

13:01

just watch the movie. Another character

13:03

will come in, Dad, Dad! Is

13:05

that the main character? Just,

13:08

just and watch the

13:10

movie! Dad,

13:17

what? Is that the main character? Oh

13:19

my gosh, will you just watch the movie? I

13:23

promise you, by the end of the

13:25

movie, it will all make sense. I

13:31

love movies. But

13:34

the fact of the matter is you

13:36

have your main characters and you have your supporting

13:38

cast in every movie, right? In

13:41

fact, I would argue

13:43

that with just the main characters,

13:46

it wouldn't really be that big of a

13:48

deal, right? If Frodo was alone in Lord

13:50

of the Rings, that would

13:52

just be a weird movie. This

13:55

dude's walking around with a ring going

13:57

invisible for no reason. Nobody's there. I

14:01

love Batman. But

14:04

if it's just Batman by himself walking

14:06

around the streets in a costume, this

14:08

is just an escaped mental patient. It

14:13

makes no sense. Superman.

14:15

If it was just Superman, he

14:17

just came to Earth to hang out, I

14:19

guess, and just sit around and bask in

14:22

the sun. Without

14:25

the supporting cast, we have

14:28

no full movie.

14:31

Okay? But as Christians,

14:34

we have problems with this. As

14:37

Christians, in fact, as Christians, we

14:39

have problems with what happens after

14:41

we give God our yes. God,

14:45

yes! I want you in my heart. God,

14:47

yes! I want you to be my savior.

14:51

But what now? In

14:53

fact, many of us go down the road

14:57

of the two most simplest questions.

14:59

And if any of you have asked yourself these

15:01

questions, raise your hand. And

15:04

if you don't raise your hand, you're lying. Once

15:07

we say yes to God, we struggle down what

15:09

I call the rabbit hole of the two questions

15:13

that you will never truly answer unless

15:15

you're pointed in the right direction. Number

15:17

one, what is my purpose? How

15:20

many of us have had that? All five of you. There

15:22

we go. Fantastic. And

15:25

then, why am

15:27

I here? There

15:30

we go. More honesty on that one. One more time, just

15:32

so you can hear it. What happens

15:34

after we give God our yes?

15:37

Most Christians fall into this pit,

15:39

this spiral, this Alice in Wonderland rabbit

15:42

hole of what is my purpose and

15:44

why am I here? Who's had that?

15:47

Who has asked that question probably this morning?

15:50

You try to get your kids here to church, you're like, what

15:52

in the world am I even doing that? We

15:56

need an exorcist in here with our kids.

15:58

Like, why is it putting our shoes on?

16:00

on it's this new concept every single day

16:02

but I'm gonna

16:05

help you out here okay and so I've got

16:07

some points I've got some notes and if you

16:09

guys are note takers how many note takers we

16:11

got all right

16:13

all of them women all of them all of

16:15

them how many people got

16:18

their phones out ready to take some notes in

16:20

their iPhones there we go I love

16:22

it okay well if you're a note taker this is

16:24

going to be for you so number one I'm gonna

16:26

answer those two questions for you because I have figured

16:28

it out are you ready all right

16:30

what is your purpose ready for this

16:33

to love God worship

16:35

God and advance his kingdom

16:38

that's your purpose love God worship

16:40

God and advance his kingdom here's

16:43

the other one why am I

16:45

here reference what

16:47

I just said it's the

16:49

exact same thing to love God

16:51

worship God and advance

16:54

his kingdom okay so

16:56

now I'm gonna put some stuff in some points for

16:58

you guys so if you're point takers here

17:00

we go all right point number

17:02

one and I find

17:04

this happens to a lot of

17:07

Christians okay this whole conference that

17:09

we're coming off of is about vision

17:11

and purpose moving in your life doing

17:13

what it is that

17:15

you feel you're supposed to do but

17:18

the problem is a lot of times we fall

17:20

into this trap of well you know what am

17:22

what am I supposed to do because

17:25

let's just be honest you're the main

17:27

character in your own movie of your own life right

17:30

that's what everybody wants right one

17:32

person one man's honest yeah I

17:34

sure am that's me give

17:38

me the Oscar now I am

17:40

the main one and

17:42

I love it because that's how I am that's

17:44

how we all are and if you don't amen

17:46

to that it's okay you're lying in it but

17:48

you're in church that's where you need to be

17:51

this is where

17:53

you need to be this is the place to do it right

17:56

we all want to be the main

17:58

character in our lives God Tell

18:00

me my purpose so the attention

18:02

can be on me to

18:05

show everybody how holy I am

18:07

and how much I love you more

18:09

than Teresa does or so on. Ooh,

18:13

a little quiet. Does that mean I'm on to something

18:15

there? Ooh, it's

18:17

always when you're quiet, when you know you're there.

18:20

Right on that edge of, all right, Graham,

18:22

you keep going, I'm walking out. Oh,

18:25

I thought somebody was walking out right there at the camera. I

18:28

was like, oh wow, it really happened. Okay. But

18:35

while we try to figure out these things, Christians

18:38

fall into traps, okay?

18:41

We as Christians fall into major traps.

18:44

One of them, and this is point number one. You

18:46

ready? So for those of you taking notes, here you

18:49

go. Let me take this water. Point

18:52

number one, stop waiting on God

18:54

because he's already here. Yeah,

18:58

yeah, you can clap to that. How

19:02

many people have heard this phrase

19:04

from believers? Hey, brother

19:07

Billy, how you doing? Oh, blessed and

19:09

highly favored. Oh, I'm good.

19:11

Oh, okay, well, how's the job going? Are

19:14

things going okay? Well, you know, we're

19:17

just waiting on God. Just

19:19

waiting on God. Waiting

19:21

on God? To do, did he leave?

19:25

What are you talking about? But you know, I have

19:27

a Bible verse to back this up and it's just

19:29

Genesis, it's all the way back in Genesis. And for

19:31

those of you who didn't take, did any of you

19:34

grow up like a similar to God, you did like

19:36

the sword drills? You know what I'm talking about? You

19:38

gotta hold the Bible by the base and they'd be

19:40

like, Proverbs 16, four. And you

19:43

have, and who can get there first? It's the

19:45

most demeaning thing ever, because I lost every time.

19:49

But for those of you who don't know where Genesis is, it's

19:51

at the front of the book. It's just the first one, right?

19:54

And then Genesis one says it very clearly. Who knows

19:56

what Genesis one says? Come on. In

19:59

the beginning, God created it. in it. All

20:02

right. In the beginning God created

20:04

the heavens and the

20:06

earth. That dude is in

20:08

charge of everything. And

20:12

you're waiting on him? I'm just

20:15

waiting on God to show up. I

20:17

don't know. He didn't go nowhere. He's

20:20

got...you left and came back. What are

20:23

you talking about? God has never

20:25

gone anywhere. God was here before

20:27

anything was here. God's

20:29

around the entire time. What

20:31

are you talking about? I'm

20:35

just waiting on God. Just waiting on

20:37

God. One day God's gonna show up

20:39

and that's good. He's already here. Stop.

20:43

So many people are waiting on God.

20:45

God's sitting here going, I'm waiting on

20:47

you. Another

20:55

thing that Christians fall into and

20:58

this is all about we're talking about

21:00

here about main characters, right? Because

21:02

there's such a fine balance between

21:04

all of this being a main character

21:06

in your own story but it's not

21:09

your story. It's God's story.

21:12

Every bit of this we are all news flash. I'm

21:14

gonna go ahead and tell you the ending of my

21:16

sermon before we go any further. News

21:18

flash. God's the

21:21

main character and we're all supporting cast.

21:24

That's it. And most

21:26

of us are supporting cast that won't

21:28

even get listed as credit. We're cameraman

21:31

number five. Okay?

21:33

That's the reality. Just I'm giving it to

21:35

you before I get there so you can

21:37

walk out now if that upset you. Okay?

21:39

Some people are like, I don't know. I'm

21:42

pretty big deal. All

21:44

right. All

21:48

right. Another thing Christians fall into it. How many people have

21:50

heard this? I'm

21:54

just praying for God to open a door. No

21:57

one's heard that. Pastor Kevin, what kind of church

21:59

is this? I'm gonna

22:01

go to this Christian side of the room. We're gonna talk

22:03

to you later. How many people have ever heard people say,

22:05

I'm just waiting on God to open up a door. God

22:08

opened up a door, opened up a door. But

22:10

the problem is, yes, God opens up doors absolutely,

22:13

but God also gives you tools

22:15

to open up the door yourself.

22:21

And oftentimes we use the phrase, I'm just waiting

22:23

on God to open up a door as an

22:25

excuse to be lazy. As

22:28

an excuse to wallow in our self

22:30

pity, as an excuse to go, well,

22:33

that's why nothing's happening because God's just

22:35

not letting me dab it yet. So

22:38

I take you back to a

22:40

little story here and they all, grandma, where do you

22:42

get that? Grandma, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay,

22:45

I'll take you just one story

22:47

here, okay? You guys

22:50

heard the story of Jesus

22:52

hanging out in his house and all of

22:54

a sudden these dudes and these friends

22:57

got their friend that's paralyzed. They're like, you know

22:59

what? They're just gonna break through this dude's ceiling

23:02

and lower him down. Everybody heard that

23:04

story? Okay, we've been in church a long

23:06

time. Okay, here's the thing. Where was the

23:08

open door there? There

23:11

wasn't one. In fact, not only was

23:13

there not an open door, they weren't

23:15

welcome there. So

23:18

these people were like, uh-uh, no, no, no, no. We're

23:20

not waiting on an open door. You're not gonna tell

23:22

me what I can and cannot do. I've

23:25

gotta get to Jesus. So we're

23:27

climbing and parkouring up this roof

23:29

and we're breaking it down, forget

23:31

insurance policies all the above and

23:33

we're lowering this dude through a

23:35

roof and a ceiling because we

23:37

gotta get to Jesus. Where

23:41

was the open door or does

23:43

God give us the ability to

23:45

open the doors ourselves? Open

23:49

door. Sometimes

23:52

an open door is the God-given gifts

23:55

and abilities that God has given you to break

23:57

a hole in the ceiling and lower

23:59

down there. because you have got

24:01

to get to Jesus. So

24:04

stop waiting on the lie that we

24:07

have contorted that God's gonna open a

24:09

door. Oh if God

24:11

wants this to happen it's just gonna ease

24:13

right through. Just gonna ease right

24:16

in which Pastor Kevin will probably tell

24:18

you actually what I've discovered as a

24:20

Christian is right

24:22

when you really start trying to do

24:24

what the will of God has you

24:26

to do. That's when all the resistance

24:28

that's when all the devil's work comes

24:30

against you that's when you lose a

24:32

job you lose money friends disown you

24:34

all the sudden something goes wrong with

24:37

your house or blah blah blah everything

24:39

you can possibly imagine and most people

24:41

would go well if God this obviously

24:43

is not of God because

24:45

if it wasn't God it wouldn't be hard

24:47

like this. No that's exactly

24:49

what God wants you to do the devil's

24:51

the one that doesn't want you to do it

24:54

so the devil's throwing everything at you and that's

24:56

exactly the point where you take the spear and

24:58

you throw it right through the shield. In

25:07

my life I've taken a lot of risk a lot of

25:09

jumps but

25:12

at no point was I a hundred percent sure

25:14

of anything. In fact

25:16

yesterday I talked a little bit about faith and doubt

25:18

and how they correlate with each other because

25:21

to have true faith you have to have some

25:24

one more time to have true faith you have to

25:26

have some because

25:29

faith is belief in something that

25:31

you can't what see taste smell

25:33

prove touch right okay

25:35

so in turn

25:37

there has to be some doubt to

25:39

have true faith because if

25:41

you don't if you if you absolutely

25:44

know then that's not faith that's simply

25:46

knowing right like

25:48

I know if I throw this laptop

25:51

or this iPad whatever it's called if I

25:53

throw this it's going to

25:55

break because no matter how expensive it is or

25:57

how technology event if I

26:00

throw it, it's gonna break. You

26:02

know right now if you walk outside and

26:05

I don't know you haven't put oil in your car

26:08

for 36 years. Alyssa.

26:12

Alyssa

26:16

is the most faith-filled person I

26:18

know because she believes that E

26:20

stands for everlasting and

26:23

that the Lord will provide... I'm sorry babe,

26:25

where you at? She's

26:30

the most faith-filled believer I know because I...

26:35

but it's that oftentimes

26:38

me and Alyssa when we are 51% sure,

26:41

we're 51% sure that

26:46

this is what we're supposed to do, this is the

26:48

direction we're supposed to go. So we're

26:50

going to jump,

26:53

we're gonna jump in. It's

26:57

quiet here because most of you would not do

26:59

a thing at 51%. That's

27:01

not enough, God I need a 90-95 at best. And

27:06

if you could work in the 99 that'd be great

27:09

because Jesus I don't

27:11

know but but oftentimes I've noticed that the

27:14

Lord doesn't work that way because

27:17

see a lot of times God wants to test our

27:19

obedience before He'll hand us a blessing. And

27:24

there's no faith in obedience when you know

27:27

exactly what's going to happen. None.

27:33

It's time for you to jump in and

27:36

let the current take you. It's

27:39

time for you to jump in and literally

27:41

let Jesus take the wheel and I've seen

27:43

some of the drivers around here, Jesus needs

27:45

to take the wheel 100%. You're

27:50

laughing, I'm telling you, you're laughing because you know

27:52

it's true, you live here. I

27:56

live in Texas and I'm like whoa. That

28:00

has nothing to do with the sermon at all. But

28:04

surrendering to God's plan for your life, surrendering

28:08

to God and jumping

28:10

into the current and allowing him to take

28:12

you where he wants you to

28:14

go. How many people have ever been on like,

28:16

I don't know, a canoe, a kayak, a boat,

28:18

anything? Okay, how many of you

28:20

know that when you turn your own engine

28:22

off, what happens? Yeah,

28:25

current is going to take you where the current is going to take you,

28:27

right? Some people have never been

28:29

in a boat ever. It's like I don't even know. I don't

28:32

even know what we're talking about here. The

28:36

Starbucks line, if you get into the Starbucks

28:38

line, you're just going

28:40

to follow the route

28:42

the Starbucks line wants you to go to. Alright?

28:44

No, I'm kidding. I know you guys don't drink

28:46

that communist devil coffee. I know that. I

28:49

know that. I know that. I know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I

28:53

got a black rifle, rifle 300 expresso

28:55

in the back. So yeah,

28:58

it's

29:01

time to jump into current and let Jesus take the wheel. But

29:04

by doing that, we are admitting to the

29:06

fact that we are not in control. That's

29:10

a hard thing for Christians to go about. We

29:12

are not in control, especially

29:14

as men, right? You

29:17

ever notice that women are far more

29:19

open to Jesus taking control of their

29:21

life? Men, can I

29:23

offend you for a moment? Is that alright? The

29:29

women are like, yes, do

29:32

it. I've

29:36

been trying to offend him all day. Do it. As

29:40

men, we like to be in control. One

29:44

of the hardest things for us to do is acknowledge

29:46

the fact that we are not. We're

29:49

not in control. We're not

29:51

in control of any of it. And

29:54

through that, through

29:56

that understanding and when we finally get to the point

29:58

where we realize when we

30:00

relinquish control, we finally

30:03

allow God to do in our lives His

30:06

plan in the first place. And I don't know if you

30:08

need to hear this, but you know, you never know. This

30:10

might be your first time at church. God's

30:13

plan is far better than your plan would

30:15

ever be. It's time

30:18

to relinquish control. All

30:20

right, point number two. You ready? This one's a long one,

30:22

but this one is very important. So I'm going to say

30:24

it twice. That's how you know it's important in church when

30:26

they say it twice. All

30:28

right, point number two. God's

30:31

purpose for your life is

30:34

not your opinion of what

30:36

you think your purpose should be. One

30:40

more time for those of you who didn't hear it, because some of

30:42

you are like, what? God's

30:44

purpose for your life is not

30:47

your opinion of what you

30:49

think your life should be. See,

30:53

especially in church world, right? Especially in

30:55

church. We're in church right now. We're in church

30:57

world. Church world is its own thing. And

31:00

everybody in church, oh, God

31:02

gave me a word today. God

31:05

told me that I'm supposed to be on the

31:07

stage. I'm supposed to be talking. I'm supposed to

31:09

be director of this, or I'm supposed to be

31:11

that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I

31:14

hear it all the

31:16

time. What if God's purpose for your life is

31:18

to be

31:20

a greeter? Because you're the

31:22

first line of defense for people that see

31:25

what this church is all about. What

31:28

if God's purpose in your life is to

31:30

simply show God's light through you at the

31:33

job that you work? Where do I know

31:35

this, friend? God's purpose for

31:37

your life is not your opinion of what your life

31:39

should be. God is all powerful. God knew from the

31:41

minute. This is Jeremiah 1.5. Anybody

31:44

know this one? Bible study

31:46

check. Anybody? I'll help you out. Before

31:49

I formed you in the womb,

31:52

I knew you. And before

31:54

you were born, I concentrated

31:56

you and I appointed you

31:58

a prophet to... the nations.

32:02

That's not my opinion. That's

32:04

fact. One more time before I

32:06

formed you in the womb I knew you

32:08

and before you were born I consecrated you

32:10

and I appointed you a prophet to the

32:13

nations. God had a

32:15

purpose in your life long before

32:17

you had an opinion on what your life should

32:19

be. One

32:21

more time God had a purpose for your life

32:24

long before you were cognitively

32:27

able to have an opinion for what you thought your life

32:29

should be. It's

32:31

quiet in here because people look

32:34

this this part of the message is is the

32:36

part if I'm gonna upset anybody it's gonna be

32:38

this one because

32:42

as human beings we we're we're our

32:44

own main character. We're the

32:46

star. What? Shelley

32:50

got the promotion? What?

32:53

Do they not know? How

32:55

good I am? And

32:59

this is a natural thing you see somebody get a

33:01

blessing and you go I

33:05

could do that. Have

33:08

you heard me sing in the shower? I've

33:10

got that. We

33:14

need more parents being honest with their kids. Babe

33:16

this isn't the way for you. This

33:19

is it. Look we have a

33:21

lot less viral American Idol clips

33:23

and the world would be better

33:25

for it. All right sub points for

33:27

this. God's purpose for your life this is

33:29

point number two. God's purpose for your life

33:31

is not your opinion of what you think

33:33

your purpose should be. Okay sub points for

33:35

this. God I want God I need

33:38

and that leads to

33:41

God let me explain.

33:43

Ooh oh my is right. Get ready here

33:45

we go. God I

33:48

want. Now we

33:50

refer back to Genesis 1 right? God's the

33:52

creator of everything. Literally nothing and

33:54

it's not like he took something and

33:56

then made it into the other things.

33:59

He created everything. and then made

34:01

it into everything. God's

34:03

omnipresent. God's everywhere all the time.

34:05

God is the sovereign King of

34:07

Kings, Lord of Lords, master of

34:09

the universe. You really

34:16

think God doesn't know what you want? And

34:21

in my favorite one, well not my favorite

34:23

one, my second favorite one is, God I

34:25

need. God I

34:27

need this God. God I need

34:31

this. You think God truly

34:33

doesn't know what you need? God

34:38

I need you to do this God, or

34:40

God if you want me to take this direction in

34:42

my life, I need you to

34:44

do this. Oftentimes it's followed with, I need

34:46

you to open a door. You

34:50

see what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get you to see

34:53

and I'm trying to get you to break out of this big

34:57

C church mentality that we've been

34:59

drilled into our lives for so many

35:01

years. God I want this

35:04

and God if I want to

35:06

have this I need you to

35:08

do this. And then my favorite one is

35:10

God let me explain. Hold

35:14

on. God

35:18

I want this. God I need this.

35:21

And then God gives you something. God

35:23

I want a better job because

35:25

I need more money so I can be a

35:28

blessing. So

35:30

God gives it to you. And

35:32

then it turns into God let me explain

35:35

why I can't tithe more to a church.

35:39

You want that

35:44

promotion because you need to provide

35:47

for your family better. And then it turns

35:49

into God let me explain why I'm not

35:51

teaching my children how to pray. God

35:55

let me explain my marriage is

35:57

failing because I don't have time

36:00

because of this new job that

36:02

you prayed for. Correct

36:09

me if I'm wrong, Pastor Kevin, you guys

36:11

have a building over here that

36:14

has been a struggle to get and is

36:16

needed among this church. And

36:19

there are some of you sitting

36:21

here right now who, there are some of you

36:23

going above and beyond. So before you

36:25

come get the spear and hit me with it, just let me

36:27

finish. There are

36:30

some of you, and I'm hitting money because money is

36:32

the biggest tightening of the cheeks

36:34

thing that you can talk to people about. It

36:37

just is. You talk about adultery

36:39

and lying and stealing and transgenderism

36:42

all day, but money, wow, nope.

36:46

Hold on now, buddy. If

36:48

he even a preacher, I don't think he should be up there.

36:51

Can we get him out of here? You

36:56

know, there was a study done the other day,

36:58

and some of you were here yesterday and you've

37:00

heard it, so shh, don't tell everybody. But

37:03

the average tithe per person per week

37:05

in a church is $7. But

37:09

the average trip to Starbucks is

37:12

15 bucks a trip. God,

37:16

I don't have it. God,

37:19

I know that I prayed for this job that would

37:21

give me more money, but I bought

37:24

a new car. I

37:27

bought a bigger house. We've

37:30

got every single streaming service subscription

37:32

possible, and somehow now we pay

37:34

more money than we did for

37:36

DirecTV. I don't,

37:39

you know, God, I mean, I've got credit card

37:41

debt. I don't have

37:43

time, or I don't have

37:45

the ability to, God. And instead of

37:48

giving God your first fruits, you're

37:51

tipping God. Oh,

37:55

that was a good sermon, preacher. Here's

37:58

20 bucks. Dance

38:00

puppet. I

38:04

tell you, I'm not a pastor. I'm here to

38:07

drop the grenade and you never

38:09

have to see me again, but I'm here to tell you the truth. We're

38:14

tipping God instead of

38:16

realizing that it's not ours in the first place

38:20

because you're not the main character.

38:23

It's not your money. It's not

38:25

your bank account. Getting

38:27

ahead of myself. If

38:32

you can't give God a hundred dollars because you

38:34

make ten thousand dollars a year, then

38:36

how are you going to give him a hundred thousand dollars when

38:38

you make a million dollars a year? Because

38:41

see, through God's blessing

38:43

it doesn't get any easier to write

38:45

that check, I promise, because

38:47

them zeros get more. And

38:51

I'm telling you, me and my

38:53

wife, we struggled with this. I mean, it's hard

38:55

when you sit there and go, man, I owe

38:57

God six figures, but

38:59

you pray for this. God, give me

39:01

so much of an abundance so I can

39:03

bless the church and I can advance your

39:06

kingdom. And then it goes, oh, I really

39:08

like that portion. We

39:11

pray for the very thing that we get

39:13

and then we become a slave to

39:17

the very thing that we prayed for because

39:19

we forgot the reason we forgot who gave

39:22

it to us in the first place. Alyssa

39:25

told me not to get on a tangent, but I got no

39:27

choice. I gotta go here. I

39:29

said this yesterday too,

39:31

because the pastor told me this one time when

39:34

I started making some money and things like this. And it's something

39:36

that me and Alyssa have struggled with, all

39:39

right, because a lot of people are like, well, how

39:41

do I know what the church is spending the money

39:43

on? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know what

39:45

it would. What about this charity? I get this charity.

39:47

God didn't tell you, give me no charity. Sure,

39:49

that's great. And that's a blessing of abundance

39:52

of over. But

39:54

there is a minimum threshold standard

39:56

there that we have to do.

39:58

But what happens is... We

40:02

have become a slave to

40:05

this three-digit little number called

40:09

a credit score. And this pastor told me

40:11

one time, he said, let me ask you a question. Do

40:14

you think God cares about your credit score? Really?

40:19

Or do you think God cares about you obeying

40:21

him first? You

40:24

see, and the only reason we care about that credit score,

40:27

and the only reason most of us get

40:29

into financial problems in the first place is

40:32

because you had a good credit score and

40:34

you got stuff you couldn't afford. In

40:37

fact, the irony of it that we would

40:39

not give to God first because we're so

40:41

worried about the debt we've put ourselves in

40:43

to protect the score, that was the only

40:46

reason we got into that debt in the

40:48

first place. Do you see the

40:50

chains that you have put on

40:52

yourself? Whereas

40:54

if you would just give God

40:57

your first fruits, maybe

41:00

you wouldn't have gone

41:02

out and bought the

41:04

things you weren't able

41:06

to afford in the

41:08

first place and taken

41:10

away from God. Third

41:13

point. I

41:15

love this. I took this from Jack Hibbs. I can't claim it.

41:19

Third point is you just need to

41:21

quit. The

41:24

silence lets me know that what? I'm

41:27

not giving you an excuse to be lazy. I'm not giving

41:29

you an excuse to just give up.

41:34

What I mean, of course, is it's time

41:36

for you to quit trying to control your

41:39

own part in this story that we

41:41

call life. It's time

41:44

for you to surrender to the

41:47

Lord. In fact, so many

41:49

people want Jesus to be our

41:51

Savior. And if I

41:53

may be so bold to say that's the

41:56

easy part, I mean, if

41:58

we're really being honest here, You're the

42:00

same people who want to be the person

42:02

with the microphone. You're the same people that

42:04

won't talk about Jesus in the Starbucks life.

42:08

You're the same people that are afraid for

42:10

your old buddies to see that you've changed

42:13

because you might lose a friend or two. You're

42:17

the same people that worry about what

42:19

someone's comment living in their mother's basement

42:22

3000 miles away. You're

42:24

so worried about that negative thing. Oh,

42:27

Lord help me. Here we go. How

42:30

many people have an Instagram? Am I? Okay.

42:33

All right. Yes. Okay.

42:36

It's 2024, right? On

42:38

Instagram and put a little story up and then 24

42:40

hours it disappears, right? That's

42:46

why I, hey, we're streaming to rumble right now. So

42:48

can we say, Hey, to everybody online, by the way,

42:50

can we say, Hey, everybody? Hey,

42:53

if you're watching on rumble, comment, amen in the

42:55

chat. Let's close the chat up. Anyway,

42:58

back to Instagram stories. What's

43:01

so surprising to me is the thing that irritates

43:04

me so much and Lord, I have to pray through

43:06

it is when you know,

43:08

you've got your story and then you've got

43:10

like that little green story. That's

43:13

the one that only your like private friends can

43:15

see. You guys know what I'm talking about?

43:17

Okay. That's where people say what they

43:20

really want to say. But

43:22

why do you say it hiding behind

43:25

the people you know are going to agree with you? Why

43:29

can't you be bold on those things to

43:32

the public? Because

43:34

you're, because you're afraid, you're afraid

43:36

of what somebody's going to say. You're

43:39

afraid of someone disagreeing with you. News

43:41

flash. The Bible's very clear. If you

43:43

follow him and you are a Christian,

43:45

you will be persecuted against news

43:48

flash. People are not going to like you.

43:52

News flash. It's

43:54

going to be difficult, but

43:56

we live in this circumstance where when

43:58

something really gets us fired. it up,

44:00

whether it be Jesus a righteous anger

44:02

or somebody talk crap about your football

44:05

team. That

44:07

green little story is where you say what you

44:09

really want to say, but

44:11

if you really believed it, if

44:14

you really believed it, you would

44:16

say it for everybody to hear it. That's

44:19

the truth and you have to

44:21

ask yourself internally today, do I really

44:23

love the Lord? Do I

44:25

really believe in the truths of the

44:28

Bible? Do I really believe so much

44:31

that I will stand out and

44:33

I will take the arrows for whatever they

44:35

may be because truth is truth and your

44:38

opinion doesn't matter about the truth and show

44:40

me the place in the Bible where Jesus

44:42

cared more about your feelings than he did

44:44

your internal soul. It's not in there. It's

44:48

not in there. Ironically

44:51

when you worry about people's souls, their feelings

44:53

seem to come in the line of focus

44:55

right after that, but

44:57

we've got it messed up as a church. We have to

45:00

worry about feelings first. Radical

45:03

transformation of souls leads to radical

45:05

alignment of feelings. You

45:09

just need to quit. That's the point. Follow

45:11

this with biblical chapters here. Matthew 16 24

45:15

Jesus said if anyone would come

45:17

after me, let

45:19

him deny himself and take

45:21

up his cross and follow

45:24

me. It's

45:26

time for you to quit trying to pave

45:29

your own way forward and

45:31

it's time for you to pick up the cross

45:33

and follow the way that Jesus wants you to

45:35

go in the first place. Here's

45:40

another thing. This will test our legalism for a

45:42

minute. I don't

45:44

know if you guys know this, but God

45:46

doesn't actually need you. Let

45:50

me go one more time. That hit some

45:52

people. What? God

45:55

doesn't actually need you.

45:58

He's God. He

46:00

made it, he made you. In

46:04

fact, it's the exact opposite. We

46:06

need God. God

46:09

help us on a daily

46:11

basis because we have no

46:13

idea what we're doing. You

46:16

can't even figure out what TV

46:18

show you should or should not let your

46:20

kids see. And you think God needs

46:23

you? Now God loves

46:25

you, absolutely. But

46:27

Jack Hibbs, again, don't steal people's stuff, give

46:29

credit where it's due. He equated it to

46:31

this, it's just like mowing the

46:33

yard and your two-year-old wants to help. Fantastic,

46:39

do you need your two-year-old to mow the

46:41

yard? No, in fact, it's gonna take 47

46:43

hours longer with

46:46

the two-year-old, but you love your two-year-old.

46:49

It would be like me

46:51

trying to explain to someone how an iPhone

46:54

works. I don't know, there's

46:57

metal up there somewhere in the sky and

46:59

there's a satellite, well, what's the satellite? Oh,

47:02

I don't know, I don't know how to answer that. They

47:05

sent it up there through a rocket

47:07

ship. Well, what's a rocket ship? Oh,

47:09

buddy, it's a plane but with boosters

47:11

and it goes high and all this other

47:14

stuff. And then there's the signal that you

47:16

can't see, taste here, or smell or touch,

47:18

and the signal makes it work. It'd

47:21

be useless. Apple

47:23

does not need Graham Allen. To

47:26

help their cell phones work. God doesn't

47:28

need us, but here's the thing. Here's

47:31

another thing, we have free will. Here's another

47:34

thing, mind bender for you. We're not obligated

47:36

to serve God, but we

47:38

are blessed to be obligated

47:41

to God. We

47:43

have free will. You

47:46

can spit on God's face all you want

47:48

to. We have free will

47:50

to choose to do so. God doesn't

47:52

need you, God desires you. You're

47:56

not mandated like a

47:58

slave or a servant. you will

48:00

do this and you will do that. No, we have

48:02

free will to decide. But

48:04

what a blessing we have to

48:07

be able to be obligated to

48:09

God to where we can worship

48:11

every single day. Because once again,

48:13

I say you woke up this

48:15

morning, so God's not done with

48:17

you yet. You're still alive and

48:19

God has a purpose for your

48:22

life. You are blessed to even

48:24

be here today. Another

48:31

one, God doesn't need your excuses. He needs

48:33

your gifts. So

48:36

I was reading in Acts. I was

48:39

reading about Peter. And you

48:42

know how sometimes, how many people read their

48:44

Bible? How

48:47

many people just lied? I

48:52

love trying to catch people like that. Yesterday, I said,

48:55

how many men do we have in the thing? And some people went

48:57

like halfway up and I

48:59

was like, oh no. What

49:02

kind of church is this? So I was

49:04

reading about Peter. And you know

49:06

how sometimes you can read the same thing over and over

49:09

and over again. And the cool thing about the Bible is

49:11

when you read it, sometimes

49:14

you read it again and something

49:16

just clicks. Never

49:18

before. So

49:20

let me remind you about this part in Acts

49:22

that we're talking about here. This is when Peter's

49:24

in prison. Anybody know this story?

49:26

A couple of you? Okay, three

49:28

people. Got it. All right, this is going to be a good, we're

49:31

teaching today. All right, so Peter's in jail. James

49:34

has just been killed. Peter's in jail. So this

49:36

is Acts 12, five through 11. So

49:39

Peter, and I use the ESV, by

49:41

the way. So here we go. So

49:43

Peter was kept in prison, but Ernest's

49:45

prayer for him from the church was

49:47

made to God by the church. Now,

49:50

when Herod was about to bring him

49:53

out on that very night, Peter was

49:55

sleeping between two soldiers bound

49:57

with two chains. Centuries

50:01

before the door were guarding the prison. The

50:03

Bible even says it was four of four,

50:05

right? That's

50:07

a massive amount of people guarding this

50:09

person. So just so you know Peter's

50:12

asleep. Okay I'm not gonna

50:14

lay on the floor here, but here's asleep

50:16

and he's chained that he's two other Let's

50:18

just call him 200 pound men. Hey

50:21

Peter's standing there. He's chained right? He's

50:23

chained. He dudes about to die Then

50:28

Behold an angel of the Lord stood next

50:30

to him and a light shone in the

50:33

cell He struck Peter on the

50:35

side Waking him saying

50:37

get up Hold

50:40

on and the chains fell off his

50:42

hands and the angel said to him dread. Whoa. Wait

50:44

a minute. Wait a minute. Hold on See,

50:47

that's what most of us do we read that we just

50:49

bypass it. Let's go back Let's

50:51

just just pause just for a second. Peter's asleep

50:54

Peter's chained to two big old gladiators

50:57

He's got four by four men guarding

51:00

all the way out. He's chained an

51:03

angel of the Lord comes to him and says get up and then

51:08

the chains fell off one more time get

51:10

up and Then

51:12

the chains fell off his head. So

51:14

what does that mean? Well when I read it,

51:16

it means this so Peter's

51:20

chained angel comes in says

51:22

get up And I have

51:24

to think about how we would be today. I know how

51:26

I would be I'll put it on myself You guys are

51:28

Christians. You guys are living for the Lord your holy. I

51:30

know I'll talk about me I'm

51:33

chained to two 375-pound

51:36

giants in my mind.

51:38

That's what they are. I'm chained like this somehow I

51:41

fell asleep Angel

51:43

wakes me up and says get up and

51:45

my first response would be remember the point

51:47

is God doesn't need your excuses He needs

51:50

your yes. My first response would

51:52

be get up Wait,

51:54

did do you not see

51:57

that I'm chained to these people? What do you mean?

52:00

knock the chains off and then I'll

52:03

get up. Oh

52:05

come on church work with me you know you would

52:07

be the same way right? God

52:09

do you not see what I'm dealing

52:11

with right now? Your

52:14

spouse is irritating you. Jesus

52:17

do you see it? Oh

52:20

hold on no no I just feel like this.

52:22

Jesus do you see him? This

52:25

is what I'm dealing with. You

52:28

want me to change? Change that!

52:35

But that's not what the Bible says. Listen

52:37

to the power of this. The

52:40

angel said, kick up. Without

52:44

saying a word he got

52:46

up and then the chains

52:48

fell off. You

52:57

see God's not asking for our excuses of

52:59

what he tells us to do. Now in

53:01

context this was an angel here sent by

53:03

God. God

53:05

doesn't care about your excuses of why you

53:07

think you can't do something. He told you

53:09

to do it and

53:12

then the blessing comes through

53:14

the obedience. And

53:16

too many of us today are too concerned

53:18

about our own problems and

53:22

too concerned about telling Jesus why

53:24

we can't do something and

53:26

therefore we are making it

53:28

all about us. Just

53:32

like in the movies you know

53:34

that character is gonna make it. You

53:37

do! Like oh this looks real bad

53:39

but there's no way they're gonna kill

53:41

Tom Cruise off. You know

53:43

it's the same thing. You really think

53:45

God the God of the universe is

53:48

going to abandon you but

53:51

it's through the obedience. God

53:53

I can't I can't I can't tie

53:55

10% because if I do that I can't pay my

53:57

bills. You

54:00

really think God can't

54:02

provide for you? How

54:05

many people, I said this yesterday too, so shh.

54:07

How many people have ever used Dave Ramsey? Dave

54:10

Ramsey, okay, all right, cool. You

54:13

trust Dave Ramsey to help you out with money, but

54:15

you don't trust God? Dave

54:18

Ramsey's a dude. And

54:22

the only person not following Dave Ramsey's rules

54:24

are Dave Ramsey. I'm

54:28

just being honest, man. Dave

54:30

Ramsey ain't doing the envelope method, I

54:32

promise. But

54:37

you'll trust Dave Ramsey before you'll trust God.

54:41

And final point, final point, here we go. We're gonna wrap

54:43

this thing up. I know some of you are like, oh

54:45

goodness, any day. Final

54:48

point is the biggest point. And

54:50

I really need you to write this down because

54:53

oftentimes we really need to

54:55

remember this. God

54:58

is the main character, not you.

55:01

One more time because I feel

55:03

like that just didn't quite hit,

55:05

right? God is the main character,

55:07

not you. Don't

55:14

believe me? The Bible

55:16

was full of

55:18

biblical heroes, if you would call them,

55:20

or biblical characters that

55:23

fell because they forgot their place. Don't

55:27

believe me? Let's just, you know, we'll just go through, we'll just

55:29

go through a couple of them here, just real quick. Adam,

55:35

Andy even, that stinking tree. My

55:40

pastor, you know, my personal

55:42

pastor, Michael Patteau, said it the other day, he was like,

55:44

you know, if it was me in the garden, we'd

55:47

still be there. I'm just being honest. I'm

55:50

not letting a snake talk to me. No

55:52

way. Eve,

55:55

I don't know if you've seen what I see, but

55:57

that's a talking snake, I'm out. There's

56:00

no way. Don't

56:06

believe me? David! Bible

56:08

says a man after God's own heart. Can

56:10

you imagine I've got another sermon I'm working

56:12

on and it's going to be called, if

56:14

they only had a Twitter. And

56:19

it's David going, just hanging out with

56:21

the Lord, but ooh she fine.

56:24

Sin. Hashtag

56:28

I shouldn't but I may. Can

56:32

you imagine if the news was around back then? Breaking

56:36

news. King David caught up in

56:38

scandalous affair, even ties to murder.

56:44

Don't believe me? Judas. Lord have

56:46

mercy. Do we even have to

56:48

start? And

56:50

then we just talked about Peter, but Peter!

56:53

Peter did not, Peter walked with Jesus

56:56

all day. I

56:59

love the Lord. Denied

57:03

him three times. And

57:06

we want to say, oh we'd never do that. You

57:10

ain't physically walked with Jesus a day

57:12

in your life. If you have, please come up here.

57:15

Because I would love to meet you. Peter

57:19

denied him three times. I

57:21

do not know this man. I

57:24

do not know him. I do not know

57:26

him. Moving

57:28

forward, what's the practical application of this? Many times

57:31

we want to become the main character. We

57:34

want, we want a

57:36

calling on our lives. How many people believe they

57:38

have a calling on their life? Okay,

57:41

half the room. How

57:43

many of you are at church because you just think it's

57:45

cool to hang out, I guess. God's got a prayer, hold

57:48

on. What was Jeremiah

57:50

1-5? Let me just go back.

57:52

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew

57:54

you. And before you were born, I consecrated you

57:56

and appointed you a prophet to the nation. So

57:58

let me ask again, how many of you have been born? Somebody who believed

58:00

God's got a calling on your life. There

58:03

we go, there's still two of you that are just like, I

58:05

don't know. That's

58:07

okay, we're not done yet. But

58:10

the thing you have to remember is it's not your

58:12

calling. It's God's calling for

58:14

you. It's

58:17

not about you. Many

58:21

people wanna be famous. When

58:24

I first got Facebook famous or internet famous

58:26

or whatever, you wanna call

58:29

it infamous, depending on who you

58:31

ask. I

58:34

thought it was really cool. And

58:37

then I realized that it wasn't, but the thing you gotta

58:39

remember, many of you pray for the God, give me the

58:41

platform, give me the influence. But

58:44

it's not your platform. It's

58:47

the platform He gives you to use for

58:49

His purpose. Here's another thing.

58:57

I said yesterday, I was talking

58:59

about more political things and economical

59:01

things. And the realization that here

59:04

in America today, you actually really own nothing.

59:08

Oh, quiet. You

59:10

pay off your house, you don't own that house. Because

59:14

you still gotta pay what? Taxes,

59:16

yeah. Watch what happens when you don't pay

59:18

your taxes. House

59:20

is gone. And they'll sell it for 25

59:23

grand, you paid 500,000 for it. Land,

59:26

oh, that's a good one. We'll buy land. You

59:28

don't really own that land. You

59:31

rent it very expensively. And

59:34

then the city council or the county council can

59:36

tell you what you can and cannot build on

59:38

that land. You don't own that

59:40

land. Same

59:43

thing on a spiritual purpose. You

59:47

own nothing. It's not

59:49

your money, it's not your job,

59:51

it's not your platform, it's not

59:54

your giftings. They're

59:57

not even your kids. They're

1:00:01

Jesus's, are they God's children that

1:00:03

have been entrusted to you? I

1:00:07

saw a lot of mama bears pucker out when I said that.

1:00:09

Hold on Mel. Hear me

1:00:11

out though, but they're not. They

1:00:13

are children of God that He has

1:00:15

entrusted us. Do you

1:00:18

see the mentality shift? Do

1:00:21

you see the perspective shift here? All right, last but

1:00:23

not least, it's not all about you. I want to

1:00:25

finish it with a story here. How

1:00:27

many people know who Billy Graham is? Okay,

1:00:31

all right. Some of you need to go to church a

1:00:33

little more, but all right, most of you. All

1:00:35

right, now how many of you know who Mordecai

1:00:39

Hamm is? Okay,

1:00:42

none of you. All right, that's

1:00:45

good. Here's my purpose. Mordecai Hamm was

1:00:47

born in 1877. This dude was old.

1:00:49

His name was Mordecai

1:00:53

Hamm. Talk

1:00:56

about a name that does not exist

1:00:58

anymore. That's my friend Mordecai. We call

1:01:00

him Mord. Morty

1:01:02

for short. It's

1:01:06

not all about you. Mordecai Hamm

1:01:08

was born in 1877. He was

1:01:10

a horseback evangelist. Went

1:01:12

from town to town to town to

1:01:14

town to town, sometimes preaching to five

1:01:16

families alone. That

1:01:20

man probably never saw

1:01:22

the big picture. In fact, he argued to

1:01:24

say that there were moments where he

1:01:26

was like, what am I doing? God,

1:01:31

I thought this is what you wanted me to do. Why

1:01:33

are there only five families

1:01:35

here? But

1:01:39

most people don't realize this. One

1:01:42

day while being in North Carolina, there was

1:01:45

a family there and

1:01:47

there was a kid by the name of Billy Graham

1:01:51

that he ministered to and

1:01:53

he was the one that actually led

1:01:55

Billy Graham in the prayer

1:01:57

of salvation. Now,

1:01:59

Mordecai Ham probably never

1:02:01

saw to fruition the

1:02:04

acts of his obedience, but Billy Graham would go on

1:02:06

to be the greatest evangelist the world had ever seen,

1:02:11

preaching to over 215 million people with

1:02:13

a documented 3.2 million salvations

1:02:15

of accepting

1:02:22

of Jesus in their heart, all because

1:02:25

a guy named Mordecai Ham that none

1:02:27

of you have heard of, obeyed

1:02:30

God and realized it wasn't

1:02:33

about him. Now

1:02:39

it doesn't have to be all grand things.

1:02:42

Talked about this a little bit yesterday. You

1:02:44

don't have to be the next Billy Graham.

1:02:46

You don't have to be the next multi-millionaire

1:02:48

of a company. You don't have to be

1:02:51

any of those things. You're just the

1:02:53

person that God told you to go give

1:02:55

old homeless drunk Billy a $500 check

1:02:58

or bill or whatever. No check. They probably don't have

1:03:00

a bank account. Money. And

1:03:03

everybody told you don't give him that money. He's

1:03:06

just gonna sell it on booze. What

1:03:08

are you doing? Are you insane? Everybody

1:03:11

knows you don't do that. Don't

1:03:13

worry about what other people have to

1:03:16

say. If God told you to do

1:03:18

something, go do it. It

1:03:20

is not your responsibility what he

1:03:22

does with your obedience. It is

1:03:25

your responsibility to obey what God's

1:03:27

telling you to do because you

1:03:29

never know if it

1:03:31

is time for

1:03:34

him to finally click

1:03:37

and through your obedience your children.

1:03:40

Let them see you pray daily.

1:03:43

Let them see you struggle. Let

1:03:46

them see you turn to the Lord

1:03:48

daily because you'd never know what's gonna

1:03:50

stick with your children. You

1:03:53

never know what your kids are gonna be able

1:03:55

to do. Maybe you have a calling into the

1:03:57

ministry. Maybe you have a calling. You're gonna be

1:03:59

the next Grandma Island to be more famous than I

1:04:01

ever was. But what if

1:04:04

it's not for you to be famous? What if it's

1:04:06

about the person? There are people that come up to

1:04:08

us all the time. It breaks me. They say, I

1:04:11

never prayed until we watched your show. I

1:04:15

never did this until this. And

1:04:18

for all I know, they're going to go off to do

1:04:20

things better than I ever could. And

1:04:24

God forbid you tie it to the church because

1:04:27

you have no idea what God's going to do through

1:04:30

them for Him initiated by

1:04:33

your obedience. I'm

1:04:35

going to say that one more time. You do not

1:04:37

know what God is going to do through the church,

1:04:39

people, anything. You have

1:04:41

no idea what God is going to do through

1:04:44

them for Him

1:04:46

initiated by your obedience. And

1:04:50

last but not least, in closing, the

1:04:53

truth is hopefully God blesses you enough

1:04:55

to see His plan play out. But

1:04:57

for the majority of us, we

1:05:00

will not be written about in the history books. But

1:05:03

remember this, even if you aren't, remember

1:05:06

that your yes and obedience

1:05:08

to God is all part

1:05:10

of the greatest story ever told

1:05:13

and the greatest movie that

1:05:15

anyone has ever seen.

1:05:17

God bless you guys. Thank you guys. Graham

1:05:22

Allen, let's hear it. Come on,

1:05:24

y'all. Come on, y'all. Let's go. Let's go.

1:05:31

My goodness. Mr.

1:05:33

Allen. Mr. Allen. All right,

1:05:35

stay on your feet, though. Stay on your feet.

1:05:38

Don't sit down. Okay. I want to shout out

1:05:40

some other people that are here as well. King's

1:05:42

council and your family. Thank

1:05:44

you, guys. Kids,

1:05:47

those guys were awesome. You see a lot of

1:05:49

people that talk it out, but they don't

1:05:51

walk it out. These folks walk it out right here. So

1:05:54

if you see them today, make sure you shake a hand,

1:05:56

hug a neck, do something like that. Who's ready to

1:05:58

surrender ownership to the king? After

1:06:00

that, ready to surrender.

1:06:02

Drop the excuses, right? All that other kind

1:06:05

of good stuff. Get up and lose

1:06:07

those chains. Let me see a show of hands. Who wants

1:06:09

to drop them chains today? Wants to

1:06:11

drop it. All right, we're gonna close this thing out

1:06:13

in prayer. Job 22, 21 says that we

1:06:15

submit to God and be at peace with him. In

1:06:18

this way, prosperity will come to you.

1:06:20

Who wants prosperity this morning? Prosperity to

1:06:22

everything we do, everything we do. Let

1:06:25

us bow our heads. Dear heavenly Father, we just thank you for

1:06:27

this time together that we've had. We thank you for Graham Allen,

1:06:29

for sharing his time and his wisdom

1:06:31

with us, Father God, and being an obedient servant. Not

1:06:33

about himself, but for the Lord. And so Father God,

1:06:36

let us just follow those footsteps that Graham has showed us

1:06:38

today. That Father God, that you are first in all

1:06:40

things that we do. We give you first fruit and

1:06:42

everything else will follow. Father God, I ask that you

1:06:44

watch over each and every one of these people as

1:06:46

they leave here today. Give them safety. Give

1:06:49

them safe travel back home. Father God, and let

1:06:51

them have a tremendous week. In your heavenly name

1:06:53

we pray, amen, amen. Amen.