Speaker 1: Is your heart filled with praise today.
Speaker 1: I may be wrong, but I think she prays harder than all y'all Y'all ready for that.
Speaker 1: It amazes me what comes alive in someone when they put aside themselves and they allow themselves to be vulnerable to God and they praise him in spite of where they are.
Speaker 1: Something happens, something changes in the atmosphere where, in spite of how your situation looks, god shows up in the circumstance.
Speaker 1: In spite of what the doctor said, in spite of what your spouse is saying, in spite of what your church says, god shows up and he says you are my child, I got you.
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for the presence of God because even when I can't come to him, because even when I can't come to him, he always comes to me.
Speaker 1: And even when I don't know the words to pray, or even if I don't have the song to sing, he sees my heart and he is faithful even to the unspoken words.
Speaker 1: I can't speak.
Speaker 1: He listens and he turns his ear to the cry of the heart of his children.
Speaker 1: His words are powerful.
Speaker 1: Your words are like filthy rags.
Speaker 1: His righteousness is holy and pure and just.
Speaker 1: Ours is filthy rags.
Speaker 1: But when we bring just what we got, even though it's not much, and we bring what we have even though we barely have the strength to get it to Him.
Speaker 1: He still is faithful and he is still for some reason merciful and he is still, for some reason, full of grace.
Speaker 1: And I don't deserve it, I can't earn it, but yet he freely gives it for anyone who even looks his way.
Speaker 1: You think you've got to earn his grace and mercy?
Speaker 1: The thief on the cross didn't have a chance.
Speaker 1: You think you've got to earn his grace and mercy?
Speaker 1: The thief on the cross didn't have a chance.
Speaker 1: You think you've got to learn some theological biblical study and go to college somewhere and go to seminary and get you a degree or live the perfect life.
Speaker 1: You don't have to.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is say yes to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Yes, if you've got your Bibles, look to Habakkakkuk.
Speaker 1: You don't hear much reading from this, chapter 2, verse 4.
Speaker 1: If you got it, say amen.
Speaker 1: If you need more time, say hold up.
Speaker 1: All right, we're in.
Speaker 1: Look at that unity.
Speaker 1: Y'all like that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes silence is more unity.
Speaker 1: Verse four says look at the proud.
Speaker 1: They trust in themselves and their lives are crooked, but the righteous will live by their faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Turn to your neighbor and say faithfulness, faithfulness to God.
Speaker 1: Bow your heads and let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you so much for your presence.
Speaker 1: We thank you, god, for the ability to show up to a place that you gave us to bless your holy name.
Speaker 1: We thank you, lord, for the ability to lift our voices and praise you.
Speaker 1: In spite of where we are, you still hear us, you still see us and you still know us.
Speaker 1: I pray, god, that every word that I speak today be directly from the throne room.
Speaker 1: Let it be holy and righteous and just and let it penetrate the hardest hearts.
Speaker 1: In your name.
Speaker 1: We pray Amen.
Speaker 1: You may be seated.
Speaker 1: So yesterday we had a serve day at the House of Hope, and when I say a serve day, some of us were there from 9 till after 5.
Speaker 1: We had a serve day.
Speaker 1: We were serving 9 till 5.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not for that song, I'm just saying it came to my mind.
Speaker 1: We gave out to hotels, rundown hotels, over on 80.
Speaker 1: Then we went and did a couple of trailer parks and we gave out about, or probably over, 350 meals.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: And also, I've been hearing the last few Sundays about they need washers and dryers at the House of Hope.
Speaker 1: They now have four two washers and two dryers that they can use.
Speaker 1: So that was because of your giving, that was because of your heart.
Speaker 1: So if you ever want to pat yourself on the back there, it is Sister Helen, which is the founder, the owner, the lady who runs it.
Speaker 1: She said yesterday.
Speaker 1: She said I have never had a church help us this much In all the years that she's done, over 15 years.
Speaker 1: She said I've never had a body of believers come and help this much.
Speaker 1: Is that not what the church is supposed to be?
Speaker 1: I want you to think for a second and you know, I preach this, I teach this, I say it all the time we need to be people, church members, church people that are willing to self-evaluate, to look at ourselves in the mirror and not point out other people's faults, but look for the faults of our own.
Speaker 1: Bible talks about the splinter in my neighbor's eye, the plank in my eye.
Speaker 1: It's weird how something that large in your face you see there's better If you could choose.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: If you could choose one word to be a goal in your life right now, what would it be If there was one word that would represent character, the character that you demonstrate in front of people and behind closed doors.
Speaker 1: What would that one word be?
Speaker 1: Your nature, what would the word summarize that you stand for in your life?
Speaker 1: If, today, people were standing at your casket and had to describe you in one word, what would they say about you?
Speaker 1: Oftentimes we get really confident in the things that we have to say about us, but when we begin to ask other people, sometimes the definition ain't so flattering.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because it's impossible to see ourselves.
Speaker 1: We can't truly see ourselves.
Speaker 1: Some people may say well, maybe what I aspire to be, I would love to be in my life.
Speaker 1: Successful, hey, I'll take success.
Speaker 1: That means I got some green in the bank.
Speaker 1: That means I can bless other people when I want.
Speaker 1: That means I don't have to worry about if I can get them to all my bills in the month.
Speaker 1: Successful is a nice word.
Speaker 1: What about influential?
Speaker 1: We are in the day of social media influencers.
Speaker 1: I'm not 100% sure what that exactly means, except I know they at least have a camera or a phone and an online presence and they make you want to buy things.
Speaker 1: That's how they make their living.
Speaker 1: They're influencing you to purchase or do something that they're selling to you so influential that's probably a big one in today's world.
Speaker 1: To you?
Speaker 1: So influential, that's probably a big one in today's world.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to mean something to somebody else.
Speaker 1: Rarely do we look to see if we actually are living up to the definition God desires for us to be.
Speaker 1: But everybody else?
Speaker 1: We want them to think we are something, and most of the time we end up building up a fake facade when we're around other people and then we're miserable and alone and suffer in silence at home.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean you need to go out and air your laundry to everybody and let them know how you're feeling.
Speaker 1: That's the other side of the coin.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all need to keep your personal business to yourself, especially on social media.
Speaker 1: Or what about happy?
Speaker 1: I would love for my life, for me to just be happy, don't have to worry about much, don't have to think about a whole lot.
Speaker 1: I'm just feeling good, I'm happy.
Speaker 1: I like being happy.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, I ate some leftover pie last night and I was really happy.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, my wife shared this study with me apparently from doctors and scientists, guys and all this stuff that men just gain weight when women get pregnant.
Speaker 1: I said I might as well lean into it.
Speaker 1: Whatever, lord willing, I'll take another slice.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, as far as I know, I'm not diabetic.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to the doctor to find out either.
Speaker 1: I don't go to the doctor until I have a reason to.
Speaker 1: Why would I pay them money for nothing?
Speaker 1: But I believe that.
Speaker 1: One word if we are saying that we are Christians, that means that we are bearing the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means that we need to be people who are, by definition, what the Word of God says, not by label, not by social construct, not by a church building.
Speaker 1: We need to be who God says that we are by definition.
Speaker 1: A lot of us like to put a name tag on right here that says Christian, but none of us can define it.
Speaker 1: We can't define it at all.
Speaker 1: Nobody can look at us and define it.
Speaker 1: They just see a label that says Christian and then they say, well, if you can do that, if you can act that way, people know what church you go to, especially mine.
Speaker 1: I got a sticker on the back.
Speaker 1: Some of you won't put it on there for that very reason.
Speaker 1: But there's one word that we said in this key verse that we read was faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Because when we get to heaven, guess what?
Speaker 1: Everyone is going to be given an account for every single word and action that you have done and said, good or bad.
Speaker 1: We get this really light and fluffy feeling.
Speaker 1: We think that God's not going to.
Speaker 1: You know, now, if you're a Christian and you know Jesus, it will all be wiped away.
Speaker 1: It is wiped away when you say God, forgive me, it is forgiven.
Speaker 1: Bible says he throws it in the lake of forgiveness and he doesn't remember it.
Speaker 1: But on judgment day everything will be brought up and you will have to answer for everything you've done.
Speaker 1: Now the cool thing is that when he reads all my junk, he's going to say come on in, because Jesus washed it and paid it all.
Speaker 1: Now that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: So if we live a life that's pleasing to God, what we won't hear him say is well done and good.
Speaker 1: My successful servant, you did good.
Speaker 1: You made him just have shoes.
Speaker 1: He had some shoes on the other day.
Speaker 1: They were orange.
Speaker 1: You could see them from space.
Speaker 1: I could find him in the dark anywhere, but he's not going to say, oh, you got these great shoes.
Speaker 1: You were wearing a coat and tie.
Speaker 1: Come on in, servant.
Speaker 1: You went to Connect Church.
Speaker 1: We knew you were going to come here.
Speaker 1: Come on in, guy, he don't care.
Speaker 1: He's not going to say that.
Speaker 1: He's not going to say well done and good connect member.
Speaker 1: He's not going to say, oh well, you were at that young pastor's church, good job, you did it right.
Speaker 1: He don't care about me.
Speaker 1: When you're there, you're going to answer for you.
Speaker 1: No mama, no daddy, no brother, no sister, no grandma, grandpa, husband, wife, it does not matter.
Speaker 1: You will be alone and by yourself with the judge and with the lawyer.
Speaker 1: He won't say well done, my good and happy servant.
Speaker 1: I'm a happy-go-lucky guy.
Speaker 1: I give so much grace and mercy because I need so much grace and mercy.
Speaker 1: So there's no reason for me to be mad all the time, because a lot of us, if we stop and think and we really start focusing on things going around us, we can probably be upset most of the time if we really wanted to.
Speaker 1: I'm 37.
Speaker 1: I ain't got time for all that.
Speaker 1: I want to live a happy life, but he's not going to say well done, you were so happy in life, come on in.
Speaker 1: It's going to continue.
Speaker 1: He's not going to say that, but what Jesus will say to us is well done, good and faithful servant, faithful, servant, faithful.
Speaker 1: If there is one word that should stand out to you that you should make your life manufactured after, it is the word faithful, faithful.
Speaker 1: Turn to your neighbor and say you're looking mighty faithful today.
Speaker 1: Well, jesse, you're looking faithful.
Speaker 1: So the title of my message today is one word that will change your life is faithful, faithful.
Speaker 1: So what does it mean to be faithful?
Speaker 1: There's a couple of definitions.
Speaker 1: If you Google faithful, there's a few things that pop up.
Speaker 1: One is remaining loyal and steadfast.
Speaker 1: The other is true to the facts or true to the original.
Speaker 1: So how do we remain faithful in our Christian walk?
Speaker 1: Well, if you don't know when you're here today, it is Easter Sunday.
Speaker 1: If you don't know the events that happened on this day, jesus rose from the grave.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know, easter Sunday is like the Super Bowl of the Christian faith.
Speaker 1: It's when people who normally aren't in town or normally don't come to church, they'll come to church on Easter because mom and dad won't shut up.
Speaker 1: It's the one day they'll come and pretend they like where they're at.
Speaker 1: If that's you here today.
Speaker 1: We've all been there.
Speaker 1: I used to go to church all the time and hated it.
Speaker 1: I pretended to be one thing.
Speaker 1: I would go to the altars being high usually on pills, and I would leave.
Speaker 1: I would cry at the altar, I'd have my little heyday, make mom and dad feel good so they'd still give me money.
Speaker 1: I'd go back out on the street, disappear for days.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I wanted to pretend that I had what everybody else did.
Speaker 1: You ever heard of herd mentality?
Speaker 1: We got it bad here in East Texas because we're all Christians.
Speaker 1: Y'all ain't amen.
Speaker 1: Too hard on that one.
Speaker 1: So how do we remain faithful now?
Speaker 1: If you know anything about the life of Jesus, you know that in times of great distress and issues, in the three years after he started this ministry and he was he was baptized and the dove came down and God spoke from the heavens.
Speaker 1: Years after he started this ministry and he was, he was baptized and the dove came down and God spoke from the heavens and he said that this is my son, who I'm well pleased.
Speaker 1: And then he went out and was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.
Speaker 1: Not about you, but when the spirit leads me into places I don't want to go.
Speaker 1: I feel a little betrayed, can I tell you.
Speaker 1: Yesterday we went to some places and I wasn't very comfortable.
Speaker 1: There were some doors that I didn't want to knock on.
Speaker 1: I told them.
Speaker 1: I said you know, praise God for the mean people.
Speaker 1: They didn't answer the doors them I said you know, praise God for the mean people.
Speaker 1: They didn't answer the doors.
Speaker 1: We had a guy come up to us while we're handing out water and food and he gave me a case of cold water that had been unopened from his own stash and gave it to us and said here, this is for the community he gave to us while we were giving out.
Speaker 1: Now the life of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I suggest, if you don't know, read Matthew, mark, luke and John.
Speaker 1: These are the four gospels that record his life from beginning to end, but very quickly we see the story unfold of a man that literally sacrificed everything he loved, everything that was dear to him, even in the last moments of his life, gave his mother to someone else so that she would be taken care of, and then welcomed someone else in the middle of him dying, welcomed a sinner in that had no theology, no church experience, and he welcomed him in to the kingdom.
Speaker 1: He gave up his life for the people that would soon hate him, the very people that he was healing days before.
Speaker 1: The very people, the thousands of people that he would preach to now were screaming for him to be crucified Herd mentality.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you just from the numbers and statistics.
Speaker 1: There were people who had been healed that were in that crowd.
Speaker 1: And because everybody else was screaming, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him.
Speaker 1: Even one of his own disciples denied him three times, just as the Lord said he would.
Speaker 1: We have a serious issue in our culture with being actually faithful to the Lord.
Speaker 1: We want to pretend and we want to put on the cloak of righteousness, but it's always our own, we think.
Speaker 1: I think I have thought since I come to a church and I would go to an altar that life would be okay.
Speaker 1: And then you go out in the real world and you realize it's not Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but if I was Jesus I'd put myself in the shoes of the Bible people, it's hard for me to literally wrap my brain around knowingly giving my life up, knowing that the 12 people that I let in close to me, and one of the three that I let in even closer than that, were all going to betray me.
Speaker 1: That someone sitting at my table breaking bread with me was the one going to get me to die.
Speaker 1: That was going to lead the posse that was going to come knocking on the door when he was in the garden and say oh Jesus.
Speaker 1: And betrayed him with the kiss.
Speaker 1: You ever been betrayed by love before?
Speaker 1: This does not compute in my head.
Speaker 1: Now, if I know this is me, if I know they're not going to appreciate what I'm doing, I don't know about you, but if I'm being honest, you ain't getting what I got.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, especially my life.
Speaker 1: It would make it very hard, not impossible God could do a work on me but very difficult for me to get outside of myself and get past myself to where I could say, yes, god, whatever you want me to do, I will do it, I will be faithful.
Speaker 1: But even though Jesus knew this, he still remained faithful to his purpose and his mission from God.
Speaker 1: But y'all remember our declaration over ourselves.
Speaker 1: We've been saying almost every week I am ready, I am week I am ready, I am consistent, I am devoted, and last week I am generous.
Speaker 1: Today I am faithful, and next week is I am a finisher.
Speaker 1: I am faithful.
Speaker 1: Why are we saying these things?
Speaker 1: I am before it even exists in our lives.
Speaker 1: Because we are choosing first, right now, this day, that from here forward, I'm going to be who I say that I am.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be the Christian.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be the man or the woman of God that is going to be pleasing to his sight.
Speaker 1: The things that I say will be pleasing to his ears.
Speaker 1: The actions I do will be pleasing for him to look down on.
Speaker 1: I will be who I am behind closed doors and in front of others.
Speaker 1: I will remain faithful to the cause and the mission that God has put before me.
Speaker 1: I will act the same in church as I do on the streets.
Speaker 1: Anybody else been guilty before you say something?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not going to say that I'm in church.
Speaker 1: Come on, now Y'all lighten up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Y'all look heavy this morning.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about weight, I'm just talking about sorry, there you are, hey, but sometimes we do things like that, and really this is the temple, and so we allow filth to come out.
Speaker 1: It is dirty and destructive to the body, to your body, to the body of believers.
Speaker 1: Now, some of you here today, you have a life of chaos and you blame everybody else, and it's never your fault.
Speaker 1: Listen to me.
Speaker 1: Hold on your troubles and you can't figure out why your life has been turned upside down.
Speaker 1: Is it possible I can't know this for you, I have no clue but is it possible you haven't been faithful in the things God has given you?
Speaker 1: Is there places in your life where you've allowed God to not be number one and your wants, desires and your will to be number one?
Speaker 1: There's a saying, and it's in the scripture God, your will be done, your will be done, your will be done.
Speaker 1: We say, god, I give you the keys to the car you are driving and then we want to give him directions.
Speaker 1: Am I the only one?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because that's our sinful human nature we like to be in control.
Speaker 1: I told you all this before.
Speaker 1: You go in my bedroom at the house and the remotes are on my side of the bed, and if I go looking for them and I can't find them, I start talking sideways to people.
Speaker 1: I want to know where my stuff is Now whose stuff is it really?
Speaker 1: It actually belongs to both people, but I act like I'm the sole proprietor, I'm the owner.
Speaker 1: It's mine, it's my money.
Speaker 1: I want it now.
Speaker 1: I love that commercial.
Speaker 1: It gets my nerves so much.
Speaker 1: I want it now.
Speaker 1: It's mine, don't touch it, it's mine, don't touch it.
Speaker 1: When I first started dating Jesse, I thought in my head I'm thinking that it would be the greatest gift ever.
Speaker 1: Apparently I found out real quick.
Speaker 1: I was terrible at gifts because I'm a very practical gift giver.
Speaker 1: So if she mentions or says something about a lot of siblings in the house, or she goes to work and you put your food in the refrigerator, I'm like I'm going to get her a nice hundred dollar label maker.
Speaker 1: Baby.
Speaker 1: That's real love.
Speaker 1: She gave it away.
Speaker 1: She thought it was stupid, was stupid.
Speaker 1: I tell you what?
Speaker 1: About a month ago I bought my own and it's hanging on the side of the refrigerator because I think it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I labeled something yesterday.
Speaker 1: But sometimes something to us, to me, that I think is amazing and awesome to her is stupid.
Speaker 1: When you're in a relationship, you begin to find this out quick when you're around each other all the time.
Speaker 1: But one thing that is constant in our marriage is that we both value faithfulness.
Speaker 1: See, sometimes we get caught up on secondary issues.
Speaker 1: We do this in the church, we're good about it.
Speaker 1: Secondary issues, denomination, what they believe, this and that and really they're secondary.
Speaker 1: And if you spend your life harping on secondary, you're going to miss the primary.
Speaker 1: So how can we become more faithful?
Speaker 1: Is it possible?
Speaker 1: Listen, you got to examine yourself.
Speaker 1: You have to look at yourself.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because that plank in your eye is blinding and you can't see clearly.
Speaker 1: You see everybody else's issues and struggles and, oh, they're doing this.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do it that way.
Speaker 1: And we can name lists for miles about everybody else, but when it comes to us, well, I'm trying.
Speaker 1: We have so much grace and mercy for ourselves.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, because we're not really seeing clearly, it's hard to see.
Speaker 1: So every Sunday you say something that's in my message I don't know if you're watching my notes or what Talking about multiplying.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about this Faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at three things to be mindful of in your daily lives that will help you remain and stay faithful.
Speaker 1: Guess what?
Speaker 1: If today you are in the middle of a season and you ain't been faithful for nothing, god has given to you nothing.
Speaker 1: God has blessed you with nothing.
Speaker 1: God has given you the people around you, and you just been doing whatever you wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Today's your day to turn around.
Speaker 1: The cool thing about God is every single moment is the perfect moment to turn to him.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what you've been through, it doesn't matter what you've done.
Speaker 1: You may have went out and been an idiot last night.
Speaker 1: Praise God, you're here today.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 1: Faithfulness, faithfulness, three ways, three things right here.
Speaker 1: Every interaction is an opportunity to add value somewhere.
Speaker 1: This is how you're going to remain faithful.
Speaker 1: And when you are faithful and you are who you say you are at all times people are drawn to you.
Speaker 1: Number two every resource is an opportunity to multiply.
Speaker 1: Number three every prompting is an opportunity to obey God.
Speaker 1: Now, last week we said generosity does not happen by accident, just like our five, five and five plus two.
Speaker 1: Two, five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading the word, five minutes of praising.
Speaker 1: Do it every morning, every single day, and you could do two of them at the same exact time.
Speaker 1: It's not that you're fighting devils, you, you're exercising those muscles and invite one person to church and a small act of faith every single day, you're exercising that muscle.
Speaker 1: If I go every single day for five hours a day and I go to my gym and I stand in the middle of it and I look at all the machines and the weights and everything, the dumbbells, man, those look heavy and I never touch one, I'm only going to get weaker If we do this in our spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: You are only going to get weaker.
Speaker 1: Just because you have a Bible app does not make you saved.
Speaker 1: You have a Bible app does not make you saved.
Speaker 1: Just because I go into McDonald's does not make me a happy meal Just because I can tell Tom I am not a watch.
Speaker 1: So generosity is a muscle that you have to constantly work at.
Speaker 1: You have to be generous on purpose.
Speaker 1: You have to give of your time.
Speaker 1: You have to give of your money.
Speaker 1: You have to give yourself to other people.
Speaker 1: Be vulnerable to other people on purpose.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because we gravitate towards selfishness.
Speaker 1: I do not have to try to be selfish.
Speaker 1: I have to try to think of everybody else.
Speaker 1: Some of us are gifted more in that area, but it is still hard to maintain, especially when you deal with people, because people are idiots.
Speaker 1: Be careful who you say amen next to, because some of y'all are patting people, looking at people.
Speaker 1: We ain't trying to start a church brawl, so let's just calm down and keep looking forward.
Speaker 1: Now faithfulness in the same manner.
Speaker 1: Faithfulness is not something you just wake up and you are good If you have patterns in your life of acting in ways with the opposite sex or same sex or whatever, and you're saying you know God, you're not being faithful to Christ.
Speaker 1: It's called sexual immorality.
Speaker 1: We like to segregate and make things all different, but we watch things that are this way all the time on our television and then say everything else is wrong.
Speaker 1: We allow things into our lives, speaking into us, that are righting our brain to think that certain things are okay, and then we get mad at homosexuality.
Speaker 1: So in this I know y'all ain't saying amen, because it's all of us we are not being faithful.
Speaker 1: We're being faithful to what's convenient, to our theology, instead of what's actually right and wrong.
Speaker 1: Faithfulness is something you have to choose, that you are going to do, no matter what.
Speaker 1: Thank God, jesus was faithful and continued his task.
Speaker 1: We would not be celebrating Easter today.
Speaker 1: We would not have salvation today.
Speaker 1: We would not have healing today.
Speaker 1: We would not have the access to God today if it was not for the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: So faithful we have to choose first that you will remain faithful no matter what and you will be faithful over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: You know, the cool thing about praying with other people believing in something is you may come to the table with just a little bit of faith, but when you start putting it with other people's faith, it grows.
Speaker 1: When you start being faithful with other people.
Speaker 1: You speak of faithful.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about relationships.
Speaker 1: So in my first marriage I hung out with a bunch of dudes I worked at a Walmart warehouse and every single one of them and they were people that I consider close to me, that I would always talk to all the time and work alongside.
Speaker 1: They always talked about cheating on their wives and girlfriends.
Speaker 1: Always they did not understand faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Now, in this moment in my life, I was a guy who was trying to go to church and trying to live right in my new marriage, but the seeds from their fruit begin to plant.
Speaker 1: Seeds from their fruit begin to plant, seeds in my heart that maybe did not come to pass then of full growth but later down the road did.
Speaker 1: That's why I don't listen to anything but Christian music.
Speaker 1: You can do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: I'm not answering for you on judgment day but I do not pour anything else into me.
Speaker 1: I love R&B music.
Speaker 1: I love it, oh, I know.
Speaker 1: But the reason I don't listen to non-Christian R&B music, I love it, oh I know.
Speaker 1: But the reason I don't listen to non-Christian R&B is because I start getting that.
Speaker 1: I start rolling my windows down.
Speaker 1: I start looking at other people's cars as I pass them to see who's in there.
Speaker 1: I told my wife this.
Speaker 1: This ain't new knowledge to her.
Speaker 1: I told her.
Speaker 1: I said I can't listen to that stuff because something about it gets a hold of me and brings me back to the ways where I used to be a smooth talker, where I used to speak in the way that I didn't need to speak, where I used to behave in a way that I didn't need to behave, and it caused larger issues down the road in my first marriage Because I allowed those seeds to be planted.
Speaker 1: When I start hearing that fruit move in the wind, you ain't getting me, because I'm choosing now that I will be faithful today, that I love that woman so much that anything, any urge or desire that tries to take root in my heart or in my mind, I am pulling it out and I am pulling it up by the roots Because I have been in the season of damage what those fruit have produced and I'm choosing today for the temptations tomorrow, that I will not bow down and I will not back up from what I believe and who I know that I am, that I will remain faithful.
Speaker 1: We have to choose first.
Speaker 1: I know music sounds like an off the wall thing, but I cannot listen to anything.
Speaker 1: It's all talking about hoes and cars anyways, that's all they say.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say the word.
Speaker 1: They actually call women.
Speaker 1: This is getting ingrained into our young men and women that that is acceptable talk.
Speaker 1: And so when they get in relationships when they're older, they don't understand faithfulness because they are eating off the forbidden tree and they don't understand that the life that they're living is geyser and it's swag but it will ruin the rest of your life and you'll wish you never did it.
Speaker 1: Now how do they understand faithfulness?
Speaker 1: It's not going to be from the world.
Speaker 1: We have to interject ourselves into their lives and be willing to look at them and realize that they exist and they matter, to talk to them about faithfulness, to show them, by how we live, what true faithfulness is and by that, to show them what truth is, because they're getting all sorts of definitions that do not even make sense, because I want to hear well done my good and faithful servant.
Speaker 1: So let's put some scripture to these three that we said.
Speaker 1: Number one was every interaction into opportunity to add value.
Speaker 1: Interaction bring to the into opportunity to add value.
Speaker 1: Interaction bring to the table opportunity to add value.
Speaker 1: Some of us have people in our lives that we keep there like an old book on a shelf because we read it once and we feel bad throwing it out.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not trying to talk about people like that, but you need to throw some people out and cut some ties and run because it will drag you back.
Speaker 1: But you need to throw some people out and cut some ties and run Because it will drag you back to where you used to be and you will not have a life that is fulfilling Interaction, communication with others.
Speaker 1: Look with me in Ephesians 4.29.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 4.29.
Speaker 1: Don't use foul or abusive language.
Speaker 1: Let everything you say everything here's that word again everything good, let it be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
Speaker 1: Be faithful in your speech, that they match up what you say.
Speaker 1: Your character is.
Speaker 1: This is where people get church hurt.
Speaker 1: They say things and say, well, you just got to deal with it.
Speaker 1: It's not biblical.
Speaker 1: That terrible word, everything that gets me a lot in the bible.
Speaker 1: That covers everything and everyone.
Speaker 1: Your speech needs to bring honor and glory to God.
Speaker 1: This is not me, this is the Lord.
Speaker 1: Everyone.
Speaker 1: Everywhere you go, every person you meet, everyone you see, every person you come in contact with.
Speaker 1: This is an opportunity to bless them and, yes, even the people you don't like.
Speaker 1: It changes the way you see somebody.
Speaker 1: When you want to bless them and you don't like them, you'll actually begin to see them through eyes of compassion instead of contentment.
Speaker 1: This is an opportunity to bless them and bring value to others.
Speaker 1: We never add value by chance.
Speaker 1: Bringing value is not something you just accidentally do.
Speaker 1: We begin to add value to others and situations.
Speaker 1: We stop focusing on ourselves.
Speaker 1: When you want to bring value to somebody else, what can I do to bring value for you?
Speaker 1: What can I do to serve you?
Speaker 1: We have people listen.
Speaker 1: Jesus washed the feet of the people that were going to run and leave him, and he knew this.
Speaker 1: He washed the feet of the one that he knew would betray him.
Speaker 1: He washed the feet of the one he knew would deny him.
Speaker 1: He would be alone, beaten and later die.
Speaker 1: And he knew this and he still served them.
Speaker 1: He wasn't worried about what they can do for him.
Speaker 1: He wanted to serve them.
Speaker 1: When I first had my first board meeting and I didn't tell him it was coming either I washed the feet of the board members because I wanted them to understand that they may serve alongside me, but I'm here to serve the people.
Speaker 1: If Jesus can do it, why can't I?
Speaker 1: A lot of times we get so stuck on the miracles and the signs and the wonders that we forget that we are to serve people.
Speaker 1: We had a leadership meeting last Monday and I told all the leaders that were there that are over departments.
Speaker 1: I said I am your pastor, but when I am out doing something, we're talking about outreach.
Speaker 1: When I'm out outreach, I am under your leadership.
Speaker 1: We have people who are so proud they won't submit to their own leaders, but when I submit to someone under me, I am literally walking the path that Jesus did.
Speaker 1: We don't like to think of it that way, because we have this issue called the pride of life and we want everyone to bow down to us, and bow up real quick.
Speaker 1: We want to bring focus back on ourselves.
Speaker 1: We need to be the church that is worried about others more than we are ourselves, that we strive to serve others.
Speaker 1: Not what can I get, but what can I contribute.
Speaker 1: Not how can I be served, but what can I do to serve others.
Speaker 1: Not what can I consume, but what can I contribute.
Speaker 1: The spirit quencher is entitlement, because it makes it all about self.
Speaker 1: The spirit is supposed to be encouraging us and moving us to serve others and get out from under ourselves and be able to be under the Lord's authority.
Speaker 1: Not what I can consume, but what I can contribute.
Speaker 1: Selfish entitlement is the opposite of spiritual maturity.
Speaker 1: If you ever have issues and you're not as spiritually mature as you think, or maybe other people are telling you you're not some people that are close to you, that love you, that aren't just trying to hurt you, but they're trying to really talk to you, ask yourself am I serving myself or am I trying to serve them?
Speaker 1: To serve others is to add value, but we have to fight against our instinct to be selfish.
Speaker 1: We want to be selfish, we want to be self-serving.
Speaker 1: I want to be self-serving.
Speaker 1: Do y'all nod your head, you'll get it.
Speaker 1: But to add values to others is to serve others, and we must remain faithful in this.
Speaker 1: If we want to stick to what Jesus showed us, we need to live our life like we need to be willing to serve others, no matter what that looks like.
Speaker 1: Number two is every resource is an opportunity to multiply.
Speaker 1: Every person in here, everybody here, are watching online.
Speaker 1: You have resources, some have more, some have less, but every single person has a resource.
Speaker 1: We also call these talents, or we call these gifts.
Speaker 1: Resources can, yes, be money, but look with me in Matthew, chapter 25.
Speaker 1: Now, here it's funny that they I know it's the currency, but they're calling it talents.
Speaker 1: But I also like to think of this as gifts, kind of a word play, because a lot of us have gifts we're sitting on right now and we don't want to do anything with them.
Speaker 1: Matthew, chapter 25, we're going to read 14 through 21.
Speaker 1: This is a cool little story that Jesus is telling.
Speaker 1: 25 and verse 14, these are the three servants.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 1: The kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip.
Speaker 1: He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone.
Speaker 1: Verse 15 says he gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another and one bag of silver to the last, dividing in portions according to their abilities.
Speaker 1: He then left on his trip.
Speaker 1: The servant who received five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more.
Speaker 1: The servant with two bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more.
Speaker 1: The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more.
Speaker 1: But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole and hid the master's money.
Speaker 1: After a long time, the master returned from his trip and he called them to give an account of how they used his money.
Speaker 1: The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said Master, you have given me five bags of silver to invest and I have earned five more.
Speaker 1: The master was full of praise.
Speaker 1: Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Speaker 1: You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so I will give you many more responsibilities.
Speaker 1: Let's celebrate together.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you this have you been faithful with what God has given you the abilities, the talents?
Speaker 1: Have you taken what God has given you and you ran and put it in a hole and covered it up?
Speaker 1: You know it used this specific word called investing.
Speaker 1: If you've ever invested before, you know there's risk.
Speaker 1: God never asked anybody to do something in faith without risk.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't need faith if there was no risk.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he'll ask you to be a person you don't recognize.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he'll ask you to stand out and say things in his name and the first thought in your mind will be well, I don't know if that's God, and we should tread lightly with fear and trembling to make sure that it is God.
Speaker 1: But in the moment is not when you figure that out.
Speaker 1: You figure that out in your prayer closet because you have been hearing and receiving and downloading what God has been having for you and giving to you through his word, prayer and supplication, not in the moment when you feel an urging of God telling you to do something.
Speaker 1: We do this with situations.
Speaker 1: We want to pray for things and circumstances when we're in the middle instead of being in His word and praying and knowing His will, before the circumstance even comes up.
Speaker 1: This is why we've been in this series Choose First, because we need to decide before we get in the middle of it, because sometimes, sometimes you'll be in the middle of it and you will be too exhausted.
Speaker 1: You ever been so tired you couldn't even think straight.
Speaker 1: This is the moment in season when you can't think straight and you're like, oh, I need to pray about it.
Speaker 1: When I say that, did that make sense to anybody?
Speaker 1: Like no, why would I wait?
Speaker 1: Why would people in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs, why would they wait to do any practice or any games until the Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: When we frame it up in that way, it sounds dumb, but we do this constantly, spiritually.
Speaker 1: We wait until we're in the middle of a battle and we're like, oh god, where are you, man?
Speaker 1: I've been in your prayer, closet, waiting on you.
Speaker 1: I've been in the quiet, still alone, places that you haven't come to in a while.
Speaker 1: I've've been in the Word.
Speaker 1: My heart and spirit have been trying to cry out to you, and you've been so caught up in circumstance or caught up in situation, or caught up in your own will.
Speaker 1: You don't care about mine and I've been right here waiting.
Speaker 1: We do this constantly.
Speaker 1: We want God to fix everything, but we don't want to do any work.
Speaker 1: Majority of the time in the Bible let's go ahead and venture out.
Speaker 1: All of the time in the Bible when God did something miraculous, he did it to his people.
Speaker 1: He used a prophet, he used a disciple.
Speaker 1: He uses his people to do the action.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means the responsibility is ours to do something.
Speaker 1: We have to be faithful.
Speaker 1: Have you been faithful with what God has given you, whatever that may be?
Speaker 1: There's so many people here.
Speaker 1: There's no way, sister Jessie and I could ever know all the things that you have to offer, all the things you're sitting on, that we'll never know.
Speaker 1: We could have meal after meal after meal.
Speaker 1: If you've been married for any long period of time, you know you'll still find things out years later when you thought you knew somebody, especially when they're pregnant.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: I need a ride home, please.
Speaker 1: But have you been faithful with what God has given you?
Speaker 1: The servant that was not going to hold on to what he was given, but he took it and he multiplied it the things God has given you.
Speaker 1: God is a God of multiplication.
Speaker 1: Some of us have been given talents by God and we are like the servant with one and we go and hide it.
Speaker 1: We don't want nobody to take it and we're selfish with what God has given us.
Speaker 1: And he missed his chance to multiply and have more blessing that was available to him because he decided to hide it away instead of take a chance, take a risk, do it on faith.
Speaker 1: Number three every prompting is an opportunity to obey God.
Speaker 1: Look at Acts, chapter 20, verses 22 and 24.
Speaker 1: Acts, chapter 20.
Speaker 1: Verses 22 and 24, acts, chapter 20.
Speaker 1: Verse 22 says and now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: I don't know what awaits me, except this sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1: After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted Verse 23,.
Speaker 1: Except the Holy Spirit tells me in every city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
Speaker 1: Well, that's not a word of encouragement, but does anybody ever feel that that is your life?
Speaker 1: It seems like Job when he was getting told by his servants, one after the other.
Speaker 1: In the middle of one speaking, another would come and say oh, you lost this.
Speaker 1: In the middle of that one telling the story, another would come.
Speaker 1: It's like, time after time, city after city, the Spirit of God is leading me here and it seems like nothing is coming out of it.
Speaker 1: But you have in Acts where he's saying the Spirit is leading me.
Speaker 1: So I must go, that God has put this burden on my heart, that if I am not faithful to answer the call to this, I will be miserable.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit tells me, city after city, that jail and suffering lie ahead for me.
Speaker 1: But listen to this.
Speaker 1: I want you to write this on your heart in verse 24.
Speaker 1: But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned to me by my Lord Jesus, the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God.
Speaker 1: He is getting the message that destruction, jail, beating is coming for him.
Speaker 1: And he still said my life is worth nothing unless I answer the call and step into the will of God for my life.
Speaker 1: Every person in this building has a purpose that God has had in your spirit from the day of conception.
Speaker 1: But we allow those things in our heart to lie dormant and to seemingly die.
Speaker 1: But God is so good to breathe his breath inside of us again and to bring hearts of stone back to flesh, where we begin to beat and come alive again, and that we can still have the opportunity to step into the will of God and say God, whatever you have for me, I will do it.
Speaker 1: Whatever you have for me, I will do it.
Speaker 1: Whatever you're calling, no matter what it looks like ahead, no matter what valley I'm about to go through, I will remain faithful.
Speaker 1: Now, if you're like me and you like control healthy control, not a control freak, but you like to know what's going on.
Speaker 1: You like to know what's coming ahead.
Speaker 1: Am I by myself?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be awesome if you just knew what tomorrow held?
Speaker 1: Or if you're about to enter the worst season of your life?
Speaker 1: And God does this sometimes, like he said, the spirit has shown me that nothing ahead is good.
Speaker 1: It's all jail, beatings, whatever.
Speaker 1: But wouldn't it be great if every time, god would show you hey, man, just letting you know tomorrow it's going to be a doozy, better pray tonight.
Speaker 1: But that's usually not how it happens at all.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, a lot of life is surprises and phone calls where we didn't even know it was going to happen.
Speaker 1: Bad news, things going wrong.
Speaker 1: We're in the darkest valley in season that we don't even understand.
Speaker 1: We don't have all the answers.
Speaker 1: There's no lightning, there's no thunder, there's no earth shaking beneath our feet and God riding it in the clouds.
Speaker 1: That would be great Matter of fact, the Bible even says that we are not even promised tomorrow and that you will have trouble Now.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about this.
Speaker 1: Paul was writing this.
Speaker 1: Paul has underneath his belt the majority of the New Testament that we preach from today.
Speaker 1: He wrote them, the epistles, the letters from places that were in anguish and pain and suffering.
Speaker 1: Some of the greatest things and fruit in your life will be birthed out of your suffering.
Speaker 1: Things and fruit in your life will be birthed out of your suffering.
Speaker 1: The key is and I'm being honest with you suffer well, because everybody's going to have something At some point in your life.
Speaker 1: There's going to be something that is going to take your breath away.
Speaker 1: It is going to break you, but through that brokenness, the ground in our hearts becomes broken before God and things and seeds are planted in us that later we may not see the fruit it bears, but it will bear fruit, people of God.
Speaker 1: You have to remain faithful, even through the pain.
Speaker 1: Cling to what you know is true.
Speaker 1: Cling to the word of God, because he never changes.
Speaker 1: His truth does not change.
Speaker 1: It is not malleable, it does not apply, it's not pliable.
Speaker 1: You can just mold it to fit to what you want.
Speaker 1: It is constant, it is the same.
Speaker 1: Just a small nudge or prompting of the Spirit to do something is sometimes all we get To go here, say this, do this, pray for this person, this Pray for this person.
Speaker 1: And sometimes, because we don't have earth shattering visions and quaking and mountains moving, we think that God's not speaking, but the great, big God of the universe that is faithful through it all, in the great and in the small.
Speaker 1: He is calling you to be faithful in the small things too, because the small things in the hands of God can be multiplied in ways that you've never imagined.
Speaker 1: Now I want you to listen.
Speaker 1: It's not our job to know all that God is doing.
Speaker 1: I know it feels like we need to.
Speaker 1: It would be real nice if we could, but it is not our job.
Speaker 1: It is our job to obey him.
Speaker 1: Obedience is our responsibility and everything else is God's.
Speaker 1: We are to hear him, to obey him, and everything else that follows nine times out of ten.
Speaker 1: When you go and do something in faith, you will not see the ripple effects that it will have throughout people's lives, and if we waited until we only saw the fruit come up of the seeds that we had planted, you'd miss out on being used so many times.
Speaker 1: We want to choose first, that I am faithful.
Speaker 1: Faithful to add value, faithful to multiply the resources or the talents that God has given us, and I will be faithful to obey him, no matter what that looks like.
Speaker 1: I want you to ask yourself have you been living for you or have you honestly been living for him?
Speaker 1: Have you been faithful to obey?
Speaker 1: Have you been?
Speaker 1: What can I get or are you a?
Speaker 1: What can I give?
Speaker 1: God's people are called to be generous.
Speaker 1: God's people are called to take care of each other, to go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I've said this multiple times on Sundays that the church wants to wear the badge of we want the unchurched, but the truth is they want the kind of unchurched so they don't have to do much work Because unchurched.
Speaker 1: So they don't have to do much work, because unchurched is dirty, it's messy, it's disruptive.
Speaker 1: But, man, what can God do when people start acting and being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 1: He did not die on the cross for nothing.
Speaker 1: He did not rise from the cross for nothing.
Speaker 1: He did not rise from the grave for nothing.
Speaker 1: He did not bring you into salvation for nothing.
Speaker 1: Every person has a calling and a purpose.
Speaker 1: You may never have a microphone in your hand on a stage, but you are still called, you are still anointed and you still have a purpose in your life.