SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. Pastor Philip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church. We have more resources available to help you build your faith and frame your world by the Word of God. From our website, lifeoffaith.net, you can connect to our YouTube channels. Watch the live stream feed from our church services. Access books and downloads in our web store. And discover more about Life of Faith Church. Producing by city, state, nation, and world. Visit lifeoffaith.net today.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Amen. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 12. And uh actually, before you go there, go to Acts chapter 4. And I want to deal over the next little bit today with this subject of the plan and the purpose. The plan and the purpose. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Acts chapter 4. You know, very often, and you have to be careful with this because uh people can misunderstand, but very often, you know, you'll hear people say things like this, and they'll they'll be talking to their children or or whatever the case may be, and they'll say, you know, you can do anything that you want in life. And I understand what they mean by that, but not really. I mean, you can, but you have to make sure that's the plan of God. Because what we want is God's plan for our lives. And God's plan in so many areas centers around his local church, it centers around uh the ministry that God has made me a part of. And in Acts chapter 4, you'll remember that Peter and John had been uh disciplined by the religious leaders because they healed a man that was 40 years old and had never walked. And they commanded them not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. They threatened them not to do that anymore. And verse 23 says, and being let go, they went to their own company. Everybody say their own company. Amen. Say it one more time. Their own company. It is so important that you have your own company of believers. It's so important that you have a place that you call your company. Amen. It's listen, it's not about denomination, it's not about uh ethnicity, it's not about position, it's not about location, it's about is that where God told you to be? Amen. Is that where God told you to be? Is that the company God told you to be a part of? Is that where God placed you? Because that's always where my answer is. That's always where my victory is going to be found. Amen. That's always where I'm gonna learn what I need to learn. See, a church is not like a Home Depot. If you go to any Home Depot around the nation, it's pretty much set up the same. Amen. I uh I've been all over the United States and foreign countries. If if you and I and if you eat at McDonald's and you go to Manila, Philippines and go to McDonald's, it's the same. If you go to Kentucky Fried Chicken in Davao City, Philippines, it's the same as here in Johnson County. Why? Because it's the same place. They might have different things on the menu, but it's the same place. That's not churches. Every church is not where you can find what God needs you to find. Hallelujah. Do you see this? Everybody's not supposed to come to this church. Everybody's not supposed to go to the church down the road. There are people that are supposed to come to this church. There are people that are supposed to go to the church down the road. That becomes their company. If God placed you there, then that's where my answer is found. There's something there in the anointing on that place that God wants to get into my life that'll make a difference. Hallelujah. Because it matters where I go to church, it matters what I'm believing. I remember one time uh there was a lady that started coming to the church here, and she started coming on uh Sunday nights. And um it was evident when she came here that she was she was sick. She was, I didn't know what she was dealing with, but I came to find out that she was dealing with cancer. And she she just obviously looked like somebody that was battling those stages of cancer. And man, we would preach and the Holy Spirit would flow and we'd preach and teach on healing and lay hands on people, and she would leave and just look so vibrant and full of life, and she'd come back the next Sunday and just be again, just looking sick, looking, looking, right? And I found out what was happening. She went back to her church, and this is not a knock against her church, but she went back to that church and she started telling the minister what she was hearing here. And the pastor said to her, he said, You want to be careful trying to get rid of that cancer when God might have it have given it to you to teach you something. How many know that when you're in a battle for your life, you don't want to be going to a church that tells you not to try to get rid of it? Amen. Do you see that? Am I saying that God was calling her here? I'm saying she was hearing what she needed to hear that could have made a difference in her life. Do you see this? Where I go to church matters where my kids are concerned, it matters where my marriage is concerned, it matters where my life is concerned. Because there are things that God will lead me to and places that God will lead me to where the answer that I need is there. Hallelujah. You know, when Pastor Michelle, when she uh overdosed on cocaine, and you you remember the story, and she died and went to hell and woke up, came back to her body. The Lord brought her back. And she woke up in the back room, the storeroom of that bar on Dickerson Road in Nashville, and she woke up and beat the guy off of her that was performing CPR and ran out in the street, right? Blood streaming down her arm. The only thing she wanted to do was go to church and tell somebody, I died today, and I need to get saved. Right? Well, the church that she went to was in the neighborhood where she had lived, and she went in and she, when they gave the altar call, she ran up to the altar and said, I died today. I need to get saved. They said a really quick little prayer with her and ushered her out the side door. And the pastor's wife told our friends, said, That girl's got devil problems. She just died today and wanted to get things right with God. See, here's the thing. Now it's obvious that was not the church she needed to go to. But she found a church across the city at 414 Brick Church Pike called the Word Church, right? That my parents pastored, and she came over there and God set her free. Everything changed in her life. Why? She found where she belonged. Amen. Say it out loud. The purpose and plan for my life is in the local church. Oh, hallelujah. Amen. So everybody needs their own company. It's a matter of life or death where you go to church. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. It says, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about, or we're surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. So he says there's a cloud of witnesses that are watching to see if we're going to run the race that is set before us. Hallelujah. Our race. They've ran their race. Now it's our race. It's what we do. You know, the church has such a bad habit that they're either always looking back at what was and talking about how good it was, or somehow just talking about we're going somewhere else and not emphasizing what is. The book of Ecclesiastes says, say not that the former days were better than these, because that's not wise. There's nothing that God did that's better than what we have now. There's nothing coming that's better than what we have now. What we want is what God is doing in our lives every day that we're alive right now. And so this cloud of witnesses is watching to see how we run our race. Hallelujah. Heaven is interested in whether or not I fulfill the plan of God for my life. Heaven is interested. Amen. Ask your neighbor, say, are you interested in the plan of God? Hallelujah. See, this is so important because the plan of God colors every decision you make. The plan of God for your life colors your marriage decision. The plan of God colors your money decisions. The plan of God colors your friendship decisions. Hallelujah. Because the plan of God is the first thing in my mind. How is this going to affect God's plan for my life? Hallelujah. Do you see this? I had a youth pastor here one time, and he's moved out of the city. But he was here one time, and uh we were here on a Wednesday night, and there was a young lady that came and she had an eye for him. And uh she was a pretty girl and a nice girl, but every time she would get around me, it was like, mmm, something not right. And she came to me one day and basically told me she had eyes for my youth pastor. Now, here's what you got to understand people's personal relationships are none of my business unless they give me an opportunity or a right to say something. Well, when she said that to me, I just I just kind of recoiled. He said, What'd you do? I went to him and I said, Now look, you do whatever you want to, but that is not for you. You do whatever you want. But I'm telling you, right here, that's not right. Amen. And you know, come find out it wasn't. Thankfully, he didn't get involved in that because that would have derailed the plan of God for his life. Amen. The plan of God for our lives, for a church, requires my interest. Because I cannot just go any direction and end up at God's best. You can't just go any direction and end up at Wichita. You can't go south and make it to Wichita. You can't go east and make it. You're heading straight east. Where are you going, Wichita? No, you're not. You better turn around. Right? Yeah, but I want, you know, I want to go this way. Yeah, but that's not how you get there. Do you see this? God's plan, he said in the book of Ephesians, we won't go there, but he said in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, he said that he has outlined and provided pathways that we should walk in. Hallelujah. So you can't go just any direction and end up at God's best. Hallelujah. So he said, here's what you have to do: you have to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us. Hallelujah. Or ensnares me. Because we have an appointed course of this race. We don't just run any course. There's a course appointed to us. Every church has a vision, every church has a purpose, every church has a reason for being there. Our vision, the vision of this ministry, overall and overarching, is to build people's faith and frame their world by the word of God. Everything in this ministry is driven by that vision. Is it building people's faith? Is it framing their world by the word of God? God said to us that this location was a oasis of the word and the spirit. Hallelujah. And so we have an appointed course of this race. Everybody's not supposed to do that, but we are. Everybody's not called to that, but we are. Hallelujah. So there's a course appointed to us. There's a course appointed to me. There's a course appointed to you. Everybody has a part. Amen. When you come to the local church, God can begin to call those callings and those giftings and those purposes out of you. Hallelujah. Because when you find where God wants you to be, now there's a reason for that purpose and that calling and that gifting to be in operation. Hallelujah. So it should be in the forefront of our mind what we're on the planet to accomplish. Amen. Hallelujah. So we're here for a purpose. A purpose that is a heaven-born plan. In the mind of God. Listen, there are no accidents in God's plan. The Bible says this. It said, Before I formed you in the womb of your mother, I knew you. And I called you. And I ordained you and I set you apart. The best thing that any parent, any grandparent can do is teach their child to go after the plan of God. Why? Because it's already there, it's already lined out, it's already outlined. Amen. I don't want to be interjecting my own ideas and my own thought processes, and this is what I think, and this is the direction I think you should go. That's okay if you've prayed about it and you've heard from the Lord. But understand, life for any of us is too short to be outside the plan of God. It's too short. No matter how long you live, life is brief at best. And so that's why the Bible says in the book of Colossians 5 and the book of Ephesians 5, it says we've got to learn to redeem the time. We've got to learn to buy up the time. What does that mean? If you feel like you've not been in the plan of God, just stop and say, Lord, I need you to show me what your plan for my life is. Where do you want me to be? What do you want me to be doing? Who do you want me to be involved with? Why? Because then things can turn around. Then you can start redeeming the time. And you're always in the right place at the right time. Oh, hallelujah. Am I helping you? I'm helping me. So we have to want it. We have to be interested. Amen. Have you ever asked? Well, I've got parents and grandparents in here. I've raised four children and working on the fifth one. Have you ever asked a child, what do you want for Christmas? And they just kind of went, I don't know. They're not interested. Right? You want to find something that they have interest in. Hallelujah. See, you have to be interested. Is it better to buy five or six things that they really don't have any interest in, but you're just trying to be a good parent? Or one thing that they really want. One thing that they really want. Right? Isn't that right? That's a gift of grandparents, you know. Glory to God. Amen. What's that one thing that you really want? You really want the plan of God. You know, I know multiplied people, literally multiplied people, that are living their life with no concept of the plan of God for their life. They're good Christian people. They love the Lord. When they die, they're going to heaven. God has been good to them, God's blessed them. But as far as finding the plan of God and walking in it, never. Amen. I was talking to a person one day, and they they, well, let me say this before I tell this story. I don't want to tell too many stories and get in trouble. Amen. But but here's somebody might be watching and say, that's me. And so anyway, but here, here's the thing. You don't find the plan of God just bouncing around. I'm going to go to this church for a little while, and I'm going to go to this church for a little while, and then I'm going to go to this church for a little while, and then I'll go back and I'll go to this church. And you know, there's no see, because here's the thing. People say, well, I need to try different churches out. No, you need to be led about where you need to go. I need to be led about where I need to go. I need to pray about where do I need to go. Is this where you want me? Is this where you want my family? Because again, what's important is the anointing that you're sitting under. It doesn't matter what church it is, brick church, wood church, old church, new church, young church, whatever it is. If that's where God told you to place your family and plant your family, that's where your success and that's where your victory is found. And you just cannot find that. I'm over here for a while, and I'm over here for a while, and then I'm over here for a while. Because here's the thing: who's your pastor? If you're at four or five different churches every other week, who's pastoring you? Who's speaking into your life? That that gift of the pastor, according to the scripture, is given for the maturing of the saints, the edifying of the body of Christ. Hallelujah. And so you've got to understand that if I'm here today and then next week I'm at at the other church, but what if what God wants me to hear is being said here and I'm there? Do you see this? I'm not saying that here is where everybody needs to be, but I'm saying if this is where God placed you, then that's what you want to be a part of. Because that's what will change your life. But to have it, we have to be interested. Tell your neighbor, say, I'm interested. Hallelujah. You know, I was I was welcoming Sister Virginia today, and and you know, look across the room. I don't know, Buzz, where are you at? There he is. And uh in any event, you know, uh Miss Virginia and Buzz, they're they're the two, they've been with us since the beginning. Almost 30 years. Right? 28 years they've been with us since the beginning. And and I think Miss Virginia went here for a number of years before that. And and Buster too. But here's the point. You know, when Michelle and I, the way we came to this church was, I say, a miracle, and it was. It was a miracle. I was an assistant pastor at another church, and I woke up one morning, and the Lord began to deal with me that my time there was coming to a close. Now, God had done some wonderful things. We had had a full-blown revival. I mean, people were, I don't know how many cases of cancer God healed and epilepsy and allergies. We had a young man that his mother had taken him to the doctor, and there was nothing that they that they tested him on allergy-wise that he was not allergic to. Nothing. He was on seven different allergy medicines. I didn't know you could be on seven different allergy medicines, but he was. Just a little child, maybe six or seven. And they came on on a, I believe it was on a Wednesday night, and we prayed for him, and she took him back to the doctor the next day, and the day before he was allergic to everything, and the next day he was allergic to nothing. I got a letter from him in his 20s. He was he was going into the army and he said, I just wanted to let you know I'm still healed. They they did an allergy test on me, and I'm not allergic to anything. Amen. We had a lady come and and and she had an x-ray, and she said, I need prayer. I said, What for? She said, I thought I was dealing with just pneumonia. And she said, I did I did have pneumonia, but when they looked at the pneumonia, they they took the the x-ray, and underneath that pneumonia, and half of her lung was covered with the tumor. Cancerous tumor. That's why she couldn't breathe. Having trouble breathing. We prayed for her. We cursed that cancer. She came back in two weeks with another x-ray. No cancer. Gone. A lady came in, she had had a biopsy done on her arm, on the bone in her arm. She had cancer in her bones. She came back two weeks later with another report. They checked me over, and there's no cancer in my bones. Totally healed by the power of God. Hallelujah. We had a lady here come up, and she wanted a prayer cloth for her uh sister-in-law that lived in Colorado. And I said, What are we praying for? Well, this this young lady had gone through about with cancer. And during the process of the chemotherapy, uh, all of her reproductive organs had been destroyed, damaged, and and removed. And this family's wanting a child. So they came up for prayer. So we prayed over the handkerchief and sent it to Colorado. Amen. And a few weeks later, number of weeks, I don't remember how many, but a couple months maybe. She wakes up in the morning and she's sick. So she doesn't think anything about it. Maybe I ate something. Well, the next morning she wakes up and she's sick. She's sick for a week. I better go to the doctor. She goes to the doctor that diagnosed her with the problem that she had had that was there when the operations were performed, and he comes back in scratching his head, and he said, This is impossible. She said, What's impossible? He said, You are pregnant. That's why you've been sick. Not only was she pregnant, all of her reproductive organs were back. See, that's what God will do. But I woke up and and the Lord was dealing with me that my time there was over. The pastor I'd been helping the pastor, she was sick, and so I'd been helping the pastor. And uh so I took a two-week vacation. I'm just seeking the Lord. And at that time there was a move of God on in Smithton, Missouri, the Smith outpouring is what they called it. And it was a church about the same size as this church, not very big to the human eye. And anyway, we came back, and we were living in Kansas City, Kansas at the time, and uh I came in, and this is back in the days of answering machines, and my light was blinking. And so I pushed the button, and it was the then the pastor of this church asking me if I would come and preach that night, Sunday night. Well, I mean, I didn't have anything else to do. I'm on vacation. So I said, yeah. And so I came out and and ministered and and uh you know it was a good service, and I didn't think anything about it. I'm on vacation, and and so I'm on vacation the next week, and and so he said, Can hey, can you come back Monday and and hold us a meeting through Wednesday? And I said, Yeah, I can I can I mean I can do that. I'm a preacher, that's what I do. And so I came back and I ministered Monday and I ministered Tuesday, and then I ministered Wednesday, and the church was set up a little different. Then it had long pews and one big aisle right here and and a lot of stuff on the on the platform. And I stepped down, I was preaching right here, and the Lord said, I want you to make yourself available to pastor this church. I didn't know they were gonna need a pastor, but the Lord knew they were gonna need a pastor. What is God doing? He's getting me in his plan. I'm doing something good for God. I'm ministering, I'm seeing people healed, I'm seeing people delivered, but I'm not in the fullness of God's plan. You know, there are times that you feel, you know, you'll even say, Man, I should be fulfilled. I got I got good this and I got good that, and my finances are good, and I got a good job. Why am I not as fulfilled as I need to be? You've got to take time and find out, am I in the fullness of what God wants me to be doing? And so he said, I want you to make yourself available to pastor this church. Well, I did, and quite frankly, I didn't think any more about it. I thought, okay, I fulfilled the plan of God. I did what he asked me to do, I'm gonna go on about my business. But then the Lord said, Here's what I want you to do. I want you to give your two weeks' notice to the church that you've been serving, and I'll and I want you to make plans to leave. He didn't tell me I'm gonna pastor this church. He just said, I want you to make yourself available, right? And so I made myself uh, gave the two weeks' notice, and the pastor said, Well, don't wait two weeks, just go ahead and leave now. So I said, Okay, I am free. And so, anyway, I was at work and a family that had been touched in that move of God, he pastored a church, a little church in Mission, Kansas, called Mission Full Gospel Church. And he called me and said, Can you come and hold us a meeting? Well, I didn't have any regular responsibility, so I said, Yeah. And so we went, I went over there, and we were only supposed to be there for one week. It ended up going two weeks, and then it went three weeks. We had a three-week revival at that church. But here's the thing during that time, I get a call and says, we would like you to come out here and meet with the board at this church. Okay, well, the Lord had told me to make myself available, and so I didn't really think anything more about it. I really didn't, if he asked me if I wanted to pastor, I did not, just because I I hadn't really thought about it. But I was on my way out here and I was running close to time, and that's unusual for me. And and so the Lord said to me, He said, When you get there, he said, at the end of the meeting, they're gonna ask you why you should be the pastor of that church. And he said, Here's your answer. You tell them, because if you make me the pastor, you'll be in the will of God, and if you don't, you won't. Well, you know, they can't think worse of me than, you know. So I went through and and they asked me a lot of questions, and and I used to talk about some of them, but they're not worth repeating. But, you know, questions about the Easter bunny in Santa Claus and how I believed about all that. And uh anyway, at the end, Marie Price, who used to go to church here, she has her own ministry now, uh, she was on the board, and uh she looked at me and she said, Well, here's a final question. I said, Okay. She said, Why should we make you the pastor of this church? And I said, Well, can I tell you the truth? Please do. I said, Because if you make me the pastor of this church, you'll be in the will of God, and if you don't, you won't. What I got to lose. See, God's getting me in the plan of God. What is He also trying to do? Bring a church into the plan of God. I didn't know that there were five ladies that were meeting every Monday night praying, God, send us the person that is the plan of God for this church. I don't know if they knew what they were getting or not. But my point is, is I'm in this meeting, and I'll never forget the Wednesday night, they called and said, We've made you the pastor of this church. Now, here's the thing: I had to desire God's plan. I had to want it. Right? All those months and years that I'd spent praying in the Holy Ghost and saying, Lord, I just want your plan for my life. You have to be interested. I have to be purposeful. I have to be accurate in what I'm doing in this life. Right? There are no days that we can just say, well, I'm just gonna throw caution to the wind and just, you know, throw my sail into the wind and see what happens. That's not how we live our lives. We live accurate, purposeful lives. Amen. Look at Philippians chapter 3. The Apostle Paul writes here in verse 14, and he said, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God that is in Christ Jesus. And then he said, Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if any, if in anything you be otherwise minded, God will reveal that unto us. So Paul is saying, look, there's a mark, there's a goal that I'm pressing towards. I press toward the mark. Center column reference says the goal. I press toward the mark, the goal. And he says, that's something that I'm pressing towards. I have it in my sight, and that's what consumes me is the goal that you have for me, the plan that you have for me. Hallelujah. He then says that believers that are spiritually mature should have that same mindset. Let as many as are mature, thus minded, think that way. The plan of God, the purpose of God for my life. And so what that does is that makes them when I go to church, it's far more than I'm just attending a building. I'm not there just to mark another church date off of my calendar. I'm there because that's the plan of God for my life. This is what God has called me to do. This is what God has asked me to do. And then my interest level is shown. Amen. My interest level is shown. You know, when when when people come to church and you see people walking into the church and they got their Bibles and they got their notebooks and they got their pen and their writing or they're taking notes on their phone or their iPad or whatever. What is that? Interest level. It shows interest in what's being said. Right? It matters what's being said across the pulpit to me. This is not just another sermon, right? That's why you won't ever come here and find my sermon in the bulletin. There's far too much Holy Ghost going on to put it in the bulletin. Right? Because I've got to be aware of what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church. In the moments that you are here, God can speak to you your answer that will absolutely revolutionize everything that you've been believing God for. God can speak to you about how to change this circumstance, how to do this better, how to do this different, how to be in the right place at the right time. Amen. Every service that we come to, because we're in the plan of God, there's the potential for a rescue in my life. Oh, hallelujah. Amen. So we design our life based on what we're born for. We design our lives based on what we're born for. That's why you make decisions based on your race. Not your ethnicity, your race, the race that you're called to run. I make decisions based on that. Hallelujah. You know, I ministered a message years ago now to the men's meeting here, men's group, and it was called Keep Turning Up. Just keep turning up. Keep showing up. The way you succeed is you just keep showing up. Right? And I made the statement in there. When God called us into the full-time ministry, I recognized something early on. Sundays, Sunday mornings, Sunday afternoons, they're no longer mine. They no longer belong to me. My life is no longer my own. There will be no Sunday mornings, lazy Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee in the newspaper. That's just that will never be. It's not been for nearly 30 years. It will not be till Jesus returns. Why? Because that is my race. And I make those decisions based on my race. Amen. I've had people look at my life and say, I couldn't do what you do. And I say, why? Well, I couldn't be away from my family. Won't or can't? See, it depends on what your race is. This is my race. This is what God has called me to do. And you know, God is good and gracious, and He's changed some of the commitment in that area. But here's what I want you to understand the blessings of God in my life are not accidental. They're because I'm interested in what God wants me to do. Tell your neighbors I'm interested in God's plan. Oh, hallelujah. So you make decisions based on your race. You make decisions based on what God has asked you to do. What you sense in your spirit. Hallelujah. You know, there are people that want God interested in what they're doing, yet they practice disinterest in what's important to him. I want God interested in what I have going on. That means I have to practice interest in what he has going on. Hallelujah. You see this. So what is important to God? Obviously, the the local church, serving in the local church, making this ministry your own. That's all important to God. It means the world to him, what we do. You know, being present doesn't mean a person's interested. I've told you the story about the man that was sitting on the platform in uh Africa. And there was a big meeting going on, and he was part of that meeting, and there were 120 ministers there, ministers and their wives. And he said that he was sitting there on the platform and and he looked over uh in in the night, the the night they were there, and and uh, you know, Jesus was standing there. Saw him in the spirit, and Jesus went down the line and said, This is Pastor So-and-so, hey pastors in this city, this is his wife. They're not interested. And he went he went all the way through 120, and he only said three were interested. Out of 120 people, only three were interested. So I've got to show interest in what God wants for my life, for my family's life. When I realized that the plan of God for my life affects my family. That's when that's when my determination was to find God's plan for my life. Look at Luke chapter 2. Am I helping you today? Luke 2 and verse uh 48. This is a familiar passage of scripture. Jesus is 12 years old. And uh it says he had been separated from his family. Verse 48 says, When they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said, Son, why have you dealt with your father and I this way? We sought you sorrowing. And he said, How is it you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? One translation says, I have to be occupied. The Amplified Bible says, I have to be occupied about my father's business. So they found Jesus in the house of God occupied with his father's business. So at twelve, Jesus knew he had an assignment and was occupied with it. Whatever age we are, we should be occupied with our assignment. What God has for us. Hallelujah. So the plan of God for Jesus was not optional. The plan for Jesus, the plan of God was not optional. Because we have no idea what our obedience is connected to in other people's lives. I have no idea what my obedience is connected to. My obedience affects you. It affects the people that come to this church. Amen. Your obedience affects your family, it affects those that are connected to you in every area. My obedience affects my marriage. My obedience affects my life. Remember what he said in Isaiah 1.19? If you're willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land. Right? If you're willing and obedient, what's the next part of that say? If you move on from verse 19, but if you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured. So if you're willing and obedient, so as I take the time to seek God, what's the plan for my life? What's your purpose for my life? What do you want me to do? And I find it, what happens? I eat the good of the Lamb. Hallelujah. You know, I've had people ask me before, have you ever run from God? I never ran from God because God never did anything to me. I wasn't ever running from God. There was a time I just wanted to live after the flesh. I wasn't running from God. The church never made me mad. I don't have one of those stories. I don't have a story about how I bad I was hurt in the church and the church did this, and church hurt, and hurt church, and that hurt and hurt hurt. I don't have that testimony. I was raised in church. I was born again when I was eight years old. But here's the thing: I never found the good of the land until I found God's plan for my life. When I found God's plan for my life, that's when I found the good of the land. You know where your best relationships are found? In the plan of God. You know where your best life is found? In the plan of God. I had a young lady one time talking to me and my wife, and she said, But I want to find a husband like Pastor. Well, you don't find them in the bar. You don't find them out here living for the world. Where do you find that kind of person? In the plan of God. I'm helping you today. Yeah, but she's so pretty, or she's he's so handsome. Is it the are they the plan of God? Are they the person that's gonna help you fulfill what God wants you to fulfill? I look at the I look at some of the couples in here, Jim and Carrie, of Pastor Jim and Carrie. Why are they functioning in what God wants them to function in? Because both of them want the plan of God. And if this is what it entails, that's what I want. Right? When when God, I I look at Dave and Michelle, you know, bionic man back here. Anyway, and bionic woman too. Anyway. Why can God do that? Because they're in the plan of God.

unknown 43:59

It

SPEAKER_01 44:00

May have been the farthest thing from their mind. Do you think Brother Jim grew up in Newton, Kansas thinking I'm gonna help pastor a church? No, I know he didn't. Right? You see his wife and daughter laughing. But what happened? One Sunday night he came here after having his life changed at a life group, a home group, where he found out Jesus died to make him righteous. And I remember he was sitting back there about where Jeremy's sitting, or Jamie's sitting, excuse me. And we were playing a song, and I saw him just no altar call. We didn't give the altar call. He just got up, came, gave his life to Jesus. Wasn't that wonderful? He got saved. It was wonderful that he got saved. And he entered into the plan of God for his life. And then it wasn't too many months after that, the Lord spoke to him in prayer time and said, I want you to help your pastor. That's what I want you to do. The plan for your life is help your pastor. And so now, whatever that entails, right? You know, that has that has entailed a lot of stuff. Moving couches and right, traveling, getting me lost, breaking his own car. Hallelujah. But here we are. In the plan of God. See, everything revolves around that plan. And so my best life is found in the plan of God. It's not optional. That's got to be my mindset. Hallelujah. We're still being blessed by Paul's obedience. We're still being blessed by Jesus' obedience. I'm still being blessed by my pastor's obedience. I'm still being blessed by my parents' obedience. I'm still being blessed by my wife's obedience. Hallelujah. Do you see this? The safe place for your life is the plan of God. That's the safe place. Notice in John 17 and 4, I'll read it to you from the Amplified Bible for the sake of time. It says, I've glorified you down here on the earth by what? Completing the work you gave me to do. By completing the work that you gave me to do. Amen. You know, very often when people think about the plan of God for a person's life, they think of someone preaching or teaching or operating in one of those gifts, and that certainly is true. But what about if the plan of God for your life is to make things easier in the church or organize something or come in and do something that needs to be done? You know, there are people that are uniquely gifted to operate in helps ministries, ushers, greeters, AV, children's ministry, whatever it may be. What if that's the plan of God for your life? And something that simple can produce all the dividends that God promised. See, the church is not just somewhere I go. The church is people. The church is the group of people that the this building is not the church. This house is the church that you go to. The church is the people around you. The church is the people that's sitting to the right and the left of you. The church is the people that are called here, and they feel like this is where God has called them for this time and this season. Hallelujah. So Jesus said he glorified the Father by carrying out his assignment. His assignment. Look in Acts chapter 20 and verse 24. I'll read it to you from the Living Bible. The Apostle Paul says, Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus. The work of telling others the good news about God's mighty kindness and love. So notice that Paul said life was worth nothing if he didn't finish the work assigned to him by the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. Do you see that? And when you find what God has for your life, then you find that you're good for nothing else. Because this is what God has asked me to do. I can't emphasize this enough. That everything that I think about the plan of God speaks to the success of my life. Everything. Because it's the plan of God. In 1 Corinthians 16 and 15, the King James Version says concerning the house that Paul is talking about. It says they have addicted themselves to the gospel. They've addicted themselves to the gospel. The Living Bible says they are spending their lives helping and serving Christians everywhere. See, this is not about working in the church as much as it is finding the plan of God. Do you see this? Because you'll get involved with the things of God, but it's not just about laboring. It's not just about doing something, it's about finding what God wanted you to do. You know, if you feel like this is where God placed you and your family, that's the first step towards the plan of God that God has for you. God can now open things up to you and help you because you're where you're supposed to be. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Do you see that? And then when you find where you're supposed to be, you find that anointing, you find that voice, you find that spirit that you're supposed to be under and that you're supposed to be receiving from. So important. Hallelujah. One translation, the NEB says, they have laid themselves out to serve God's people. Laid themselves out to serve God's people. Amen. I've had people over the years, they'll come and say, Oh, that's just, you know, you you travel and you do this, and oh, that must be difficult. Not difficult at all. That's what God asked. I mean, if you're listening to the right preacher on that trip, it's like two sermons and you're here. If I listen to my wife, it's like one and a half. And I'm here. Here's what I'm trying to explain to you. If it's the plan of God, then what I have to do in the plan doesn't matter. It's God's plan for my life. Now think about that. So every time that I'm fulfilling God's plan for my life, blessings are coming on my family. Blessings are coming on my marriage. Blessings are coming on my churches. Hallelujah. Blessings are coming on what I do. You would be surprised how being where God wants you to be in a spiritual sense blesses the works of your hands on your job. Because I'm where God told me to be, doing what God told me to do. Amen. I often tell this story, uh, and and I'll tell it again, Jamie, because they always have praise reports about God blessing them. I was preaching here one night and I just made the statement in passing. I said, God wants to bless you so much, and I made the statement. I said, if God's got to wake somebody up, if God's got to wake your boss up and tell them to give you a raise, he'll do it. I knew I said it by the unction of the Holy Spirit. I didn't know why I said it, but I knew I did. And Jamie's sitting right here. I don't remember all the numbers, but y'all went in on a Monday. Was that right? On a Monday? They went in on a Monday to their job. They uh now they they don't lay concrete, they cut concrete. There's a difference. They're the higher intellectual group, right? Anyway, they went in and their boss saw them, said, Hey, come here. And brought both of them in the office. Now, I don't remember all the numbers. If you want to know the numbers, talk to him. But he looked at both of them and he told Jamie, he said, I'm gonna give you such and such amount of bonus and raise. Is that right? And then he looked at Jeremy and said, I'm gonna give you such and such bonus and and a and a raise. And it was a big raise and a big bonus. And they were expecting it because they're men of God. But they said, Well, we appreciate this, but why are you doing this? He said, I had a dream last night that you guys left my company. And he said, Last year you brought me in a million dollars. He said, I can't afford to lose you. Well, who gave him that dream? Who woke him up and said, give those boys a bonus and a raise? It wasn't the devil, it wasn't the pizza he ate. That pizza said, Don't give them nothing. And I and just with their lives, just with with Jeremy and Jamie Wilder, just with their lives, I've got story after story after story of what God's done for them. Why? That wasn't happening before they found the plan of God for their life. It's not just the church they go to, it's the plan of God. See, the church is part of the plan. I can't take the credit for that. I can't take the credit for what God did. But what can take the credit? Being where God told them to be. And then holding on for dear life and not letting anything drive you away. Not letting anything pull you away. Not how far you gotta drive, not where it's at, not who goes there, not if it's a black church or a white church. I get, I'm gonna tell you the truth. I get fed up to hear with that. Well, you know, it's over here and it's over there. Listen, when God called us to this city, we lived over in Kansas City. Am I helping y'all?

unknown 55:02

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 55:03

I came home from work one day, and I'd been seeking the Lord. And I told the Lord, I said, Lord, if there isn't more to this thing of ministry, I said, I'm done. And I said, I'm not gonna backslide. I know too much about it. I said, but we're gonna, I'll tell you, Kevin, what I decided, because this is where y'all went to church. I said, I'm just gonna take my family over to the Lexer Christian Center, and I'm gonna sit on the back row, and we're gonna pay our tithe, and we're gonna be good Christians, but I'm done with this ministry stuff. If there isn't more. Right? Well, I got home and my wife said, Philip, I was listening to this minister on the radio today. I thought, dear, here we go. Dear God. And she said, he was talking about always giving God the glory. I said, okay. And she said, He's just five minutes from us. I want to go tonight. So when we went and I intentionally dressed down. I know it's the norm today, but I dressed down. I wore t-shirt, uh, t-shirt and jeans. Because every church I would go to, I'd walk in, somebody had a yay yay for me. Sama mama, some, my son. Yeah, yeah. I didn't want no more yay yay. I want a I want the real thing. So I'm sitting there, sitting in the back. Angela, y'all know our our uh our third child. Angela was just a baby. Just, I mean, just a baby, maybe six months old. And I'm holding her, and and I'm holding her like a shield. Like Jim used to hold Gracie as a shield. You sure did. And left his wallet in the car. That way he wouldn't give. Wouldn't have to lie and say he didn't have any money. Wow. What the Lord has wrought. Anyway, I'm sitting there, and uh that night we went. Now you know who I'm talking about. This was Pastor Morton, who was our pastor for years. And and he uh was having a night, it was a Friday night, and he was having two younger ministers minister. He gave them both 10 minutes apiece, and and that was wonderful, but he always had this ability, still does, to hear from God. And and so he stood up and and he and his this is just how he is. This is how the spirit moves on him. He just stood there with the microphone and he goes, Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. And he looked up and he looked back there and pointed up my wife and said, Give me her. I thought, I'm glad it's her. Let me help you out. Well, she went up. I don't remember what he said to her. I do not remember one word that he said to her. But I know when he laid hands on her, she went out in the spirit. My wife does not give anybody a charity flop. If it's not the Holy Spirit that causes that, I've I've watched preachers try to bend her over backwards, and she'd just look at him. And I just wanted to reach up and tap him and say, You don't got it, bro. Anyway, she got up and came back, and I'm just kind of looking at her, holding Angela. And then he's like, Okay. Give me him. Well, what do you do? The usher, big usher, is like, okay. So I went up, I went up and I stood in front of him, and he said, You were praying in your bedroom the other morning, and you said to God, You said, Lord, if there's not more to ministry than this, I don't want any part of it. I'll take my church, my family to a big church, I'll pay tithe, I won't backslide, but I'm done with this. He said, God brought you here to show you that there's more to your life and more to ministry than that. Change my life. Where did that happen? Local church. Nobody called me. There was no yay, yay, there was no seek a mosaic, pass them on by. It was a man hearing from God in the local church. God brought me there to set some things back right. God brought me there to set some things right in my marriage. Are you following me? Everything changed. Everything changed. I can point back to that night and say, these nearly 30 years later, that's when it started. That's when it started. Now, here's the thing. We were the only white people in that church. Pastor Morton told me one time, he said, Philip, for six months we thought you were with the FBI. I'm not making much of race, I'm just trying to tell you. All of our churches are interracial and always will be. But here's what I'm trying to explain to you. It did not bother me that my family was the only Caucasian family in that church. Didn't bother me. That's where God changed my life. That's where somebody heard from God for me. That's where somebody heard from heaven and spoke into my life. It didn't matter to me what color anybody was. I didn't see it. I still don't see it today. I had a man named Charles Williams. Him and his wife, Cynthia, came to this church. She had to bribe him to get him here. He had heard us minister, and she had heard us, and he wanted, he, she wanted him to come to this church. Well, they lived over in Kensity, Missouri. And these were his exact words. This was his testimony from this pulpit. He said, I told my wife, I'm not going to drive all that way to hear no white man. You say, weren't you offended? No, no, I wasn't offended. Doesn't bother me at all. So she said, he said, What do you want for Mother's Day? I'll give you anything you want. She said, I want to go to Pastor Steele's church on Sunday. Oh man, painted himself in the corner. So here they came. Came out of church. What happened? The Holy Ghost met him powerfully, touched his life, changed his life. There were several things that happened in their family and in their life that God rescued them from. Why could he speak through us to those situations? Because they were where God told them to be. Now they they've moved on and went to other things, and it's not my place. People say, well, aren't they wrong for leaving? Listen, that's not my place. My place is to minister to people that are here. You got to understand this. So it didn't bother me. That didn't bother me. There are people who have a problem with a woman pastor. Are you a fool? Why does it matter? Who cares? As long as the power of God's flowing and you're getting your answer. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. Do you see this? It's where God told me to be. And so, time you got to drive, is a little bit of a drive worth God's plan? Is it worth having answers when you need them? It's worth it. I say it's worth it. Amen. I say amen. When the Lord moved us to Kansas City, Kansas, I had to drive all the way to Grandview, Missouri to go to church. Go to church. And I didn't just go on one night. I went on Wednesday night and Friday night and twice on Sunday. Because that's where God's changing my life. See, when people get that idea, they don't want less church. They want more church. Oh, quiet in Zion.

unknown 1:03:02

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:02

That's why the Bible says in Hebrews, what's it say? It says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, and even the more as you see the day approaching. Why? Because this is where my answer's at. Oh, hallelujah. My life changed in the local church. Amen. When I started going to that church, I didn't know how to be a husband. I married my wife. I loved her with all of my heart. I knew she was God's plan for my life. She knew the same. But I don't know how to be married. I mean, I don't know. Right? And so we were front row mafia. You understand what front row mafia is? We were there every on the front row. I mean, if we're going to be the only white people in the church, we might as well sit on the front row. That way everybody'll know where we're at. And he would preach, and boy, he would preach on marriage. And he would preach on husbands. And my wife would sit there on the front row and she knew he was getting me. Knew it.

unknown 1:04:06

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

And I'd do a slow burn. And all the way home, I don't have nothing to say. And my wife would go, why'd you think about what he said tonight? I'd be like, Go from me, holy one. But you know, I'd get home and start thinking about what he said, and it would change something in me. And I'd go to her and apologize and ask her to forgive me, and I'm gonna do better. Right? And then we'd go back to the next service, and he'd start preaching on the wives. And she'd do a slow burn. And you know what I said on the way home? Ha ha. Well, you think about what he said tonight. But you know what? Slowly I started seeing things change because I'm in the plan of God for my life. I remember him calling me into his life. Am I helping you with this? I remember him calling me into his. What's your name? Cody? That's a good name, man. Sounds like a cowboy name. Yeah, praise God. Cody. Ooh, glory. Strong name. Y'all stay away from Cody. I'm just giving you a hard time, Cody. Cody's red. He's like, I know. He called me into his office one time. I had ministered maybe a couple times in the church. I've been ministering since I was 16. You understand? And he called me in his office and he sat me down. And he said, Philip, I need to talk to you. I said, okay. He said, uh you're the best minister that I have here in the church. You have a grasp on the scriptures like none of my other ministers. He said, You're more anointed than anybody. Inwardly, I'm saying that's right. And then he looked at me with tears coming out of his eyes. And he said, But I can't use you. Because you got pride in your life. And he said, if I keep letting you minister, it'll destroy you. I finally found somebody that cared about me. Not just what I could do for them. I'd spent that first part of my life, people calling me, come to my church. They didn't care anything about me. They just wanted me to come and be anointed. They wanted me to come and sing. They wanted me to come lay hands on people. I finally ran into a man where God told me to be. He didn't care about all that. He cared more about me than he did what I could do behind the pulpit. Now I'm going to be very honest with you. I was taken aback by that. I can tell you almost every message I ever heard that man preach, but not that night. Because I walked out and sat back on the front row mad. Inwardly, I'm struggling. Who does he think he is talking to me that way? Right? What was that? That was that pride that he was talking about. Man, all the way home I struggled. I got home that night, 7548 Corona Street, right over off the state line. I'm struggling. Am I gonna, man, am I gonna go back? What am I gonna do? And it was like it just came up in me. Where'd your life change? Where'd your life change? How was life before you started going there? That made the decision for me. You know, I went back. And it was about a year later. And if you would hear him teach and preach about it today, it was about a year later the Lord said to me and begin to talk to me about he was calling us away because he had something for us to do. And he will tell you today, he'll say, Philip and Michelle didn't leave, they were called away. You might be called away from the plan of God, but that relationship never changes. There are people under the sound of my voice. One of these days you might be called away to do something else that God wants you to do. Maybe it's a plant a church in our fellowship, maybe it's to do something else. But here's the thing that that relationship between you and the man and the woman of God that God brought you to is irrevocable, it's unbreakable, it's unchangeable. That is where God brought you to change your life. Hallelujah. Amen. And I've been able to model that in my life. I am more concerned that you're in the plan of God than what you can do for our church, than what your talent can do. I would rather you not do what your talent is and get in the plan of God for your life. Hallelujah. Does that make sense? Tell your neighbors I'm interested in God's plan. I've got to hurry, I know, but oh, this is so important. Every time you greet. Can I tell you one more story? You know, pastors have stories. Some of you may not realize that you've never seen me before. I'm I'm the founding lead pastor of this church. My wife and I founded the church 28 years ago, December. And uh when we first started coming here, there was a lady that came to church here. Uh I used to say many of you knew her, but a few of you now know know her. Uh Rosemary Allred. And she was married to James Allred. And James really, James didn't want much to do with the things of God. I mean, he was a good man. I I liked him. I started playing golf so I could talk to him about the things of God. I never really enjoyed golf and still don't enjoy golf, but uh so I don't play. But I did because I wanted to influence his life. And uh, but Rosemary came here. And when I started coming to the church, Rosemary would help lead singing. And that was all well and good, other than the fact that Rosemary couldn't sing. It's just the truth. And so I met with her one night and I said, now, Rosemary, we're gonna have to change things. And no, I didn't tell her she couldn't sing, in case you're wondering. I said, we're gonna change, and this person's gonna lead worship, and we're not gonna do this, this, the other way. So she was fine. Well, now she's looking for something to do. So she decides she'll come to our Bible college. And at the end of our Bible college, second trimester, everybody writes a ministry positioning paper. And what do you feel like God wants you to do with your life? Well, Rosemary had her ministry positioning paper. She said, I don't believe that I'm called to preach or teach or anything of that nature. She said, I believe I'm called to the helps ministry. And she said, specifically, I'm called to greet. And you say, Well, are people called to greet? Well, have you ever been to a church and you felt very unwelcome? Yeah, it's because the people that were greeting weren't called to do it. So we said, okay. And she wasn't the head of the greeter department, but she was there every Sunday. She wanted to do it every Sunday. Now that's why I told this story while I was, that's why the Holy Spirit said what he said over Brother Steve. Steve got born again in our jail ministry and filled with the Holy Ghost with nobody laying hands on him, just there in his cell by himself, or wide awake in the middle of the night, because he was coming off a meth, and he was praying. And all of a sudden he said, I felt a presence in my cell, and I heard a voice. And that voice said, Stevie, everything's gonna be alright. And he was filled with the Holy Ghost at that moment. So he didn't, Steve had never been to, and Steve, you can correct me if I'm wrong, he had never been to a church but the Catholic Church. And from what I'm told, he didn't go there very much. Wasn't a very good Catholic. Thank God for the Catholic. But here's the point. He got out of jail, and I gotta tell you this. I was I was in my office over here. And uh when my office was over here, I was not expecting anybody to come by that day. Well, Steve is a painter, and you know what color clothes painters wear white. And Steve had a long beard at that time. He grows it out every winter to play Santa Claus. He had a long beard, white cap, white shirt, white pants, white beard. I'm sitting in my office. I didn't hear anybody come in. I hear this voice, Pastor, and I look up and here's this dude in white. I'm thinking, Moses? Anyway. So he's asking, when is church gonna start? Now watch, this is so important, folks. This is where God wanted him to be. Did your family want you to be around DeSoto?

unknown 1:13:33

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:33

No. Why? This is where he used to do all of his shenanigans. Before God changed it, this was the meth capital of Kansas. Nobody wanted him here, but God wanted him here. So he said, When's service time? I said, I think I said, we got service tonight or tomorrow night, one. I think that was a Monday or a Tuesday. Well, he decides to come to church. He comes in with his jail Bible. Who's he meet? Rosemary. Rosemary says, Welcome to. It was faith builders at the time. And Steve said, I just got out of jail. Met Pastor Steele in jail and got saved. Rosemary said, Well, you are welcome here. And just grabbed him and hugged him. And both of them were crying. Crying, crying, crying. Crying, crying. Amen. Do you know at her funeral that we had in this church? Steve's testimony was, yes, God delivered him and God set him free. But he said, what made me know that this was my church was the fact that when Rosemary hugged me, I felt like I was home. Does it matter if you're greeting? Because that's where you feel like the plan of God is for you. Does it matter? It matters to him. It matters to him. Because if that's what God called you to do, that's where you're going to have the impact in your life. And follow this, follow this. Steve came, he was a single man. His marriage had been busted. It was destroyed. He had contacted his wife, Marilyn, that we love dearly. He had contacted her and said, I've changed and I would like to get together. And he let me read the letter that she wrote back to him, and it was a hot letter. I didn't know she knew those words. Like I felt like I needed to repent after a woo. But he said, What do I do? I said, You just got to keep showing her you've changed. Just let God show her that you've changed. Where was he at every Sunday and every Wednesday and here? Learning, learning how to be a man of God, learning, right? This is so important. And then he started going back to visit her. And she noticed something. He'd be sitting in the car and he wouldn't get out. So she walked out there one day and said, What are you doing? He said, Wait a minute, I gotta let Pastor finish this point. He's got me playing in the tape player. She started seeing something. She started seeing this change, started seeing this is real. I remember the day we all showed up at the lake. And I had my guitar. They wanted me to sing a song for them. And I sang the song. I was listen, I was the one that united them in marriage. I was the entertainment. Everything. I played the song. They both cried. I was there when they both gave their hearts to each other all over again. How many years ago was that, Steve? 18 years ago. Still married today. Still loving God together today. Still in the plan of God today. Why is that so important? That was not a coincidence. That he found the plan of God. And when he found the plan of God, God could fix everything. Hallelujah. I look at uh Shane, are you here today? Over there. And Kat, you're back there too. And and of course, his beautiful daughters are here growing up. But here's the thing. You know, Shane has been going to our church since he was 16. 16 years of age. And, you know, he went and they went away from he went away from the church for a little while. I don't know exactly what he was doing, hiding or something. But you know, they got married and they went through a challenge in their in their marriage, and they went through some things and a hard time. And my wife was here in the office one day and Shane shows up. He talked about he wants to come back to church. Here's what he said. He said, because there's some things we went through, and he said, you know, you need a church family when you go through things like that. That's where God put you to be. Now, Shane probably knows the number, but there was any number of young men and women that came to this church with him and used to dance up here before the Lord and used to go on Operation Sunshine outreaches and just a wonderful thing. I don't know what happened to all of them, but I know what happened to some of them. They abandoned the plan of God for their life, and their lives ended up in shipwreck. His life could have ended up in shipwreck. Her life could have ended up in shipwreck. But what did they do? They got back to where God said, This is where I want you to be. And as a result of that, we have a marriage that's together that's united by God. We have three beautiful little girls that are growing up in the nurture and the admonition of God. I got story after story. Can I tell your story? Michelle's like, sure. Tell it all, Pastor. And then the hide. Dave's like, what are you gonna say? They were looking for a church home. And they they had, they were, you know, they were thinking about our church and another church. Right? And they were on their way to the other church. And the Lord spoke to them. I don't know if they knew it was the Lord, but the Lord spoke to them. The Lord impressed them. So what? Turn around and come to this church. They turned around, came to this church. God touched their lives. The rest is history. Why would God tell somebody, turn around? Was the church is it because the church they were headed towards was not good? Nope. It's because that's not where they were supposed to be. And we've been privileged to walk through things with them and help them through things and be a church family to them. Folks, I'm telling you. Every time you greet, every time you usher, every time you work in the AV, every time you work in the children's ministry, the student ministry, the clean team, the parking lot team, every time you do that, you're addicting yourself to the ministry of the saints. It may seem like nothing to you, but you're in the plan of God. Hallelujah. You're spending your life for the only thing with eternal rewards attached to it. That's it. The Bible says in Revelation 14, 13, it talks about the godly dead, and it says that as they stand before the Father, that their works follow after them. It's the only thing. I heard a voice from heaven saying, Right, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth. Yes, says the Spirit, they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. So as we're preparing to close, don't ever minimize what God has for you. Why don't you that much? Are you in the plan of God? Then you're doing a great deal. This is so important. I say this is so important. We have a lady in the Little Rock location, and she works in the media department. She actually is the head of the media department, sister Red in the Hart. And she's a tremendous woman of prayer. She heads up our prayer ministry as well. And I remember when uh Jeremy and Sarah, when your family went through what y'all went, isn't it good to see the girls here today? I'm telling you, let's just give them a hand today. I'm telling you, I'm so appreciative. I mean that. You know, here's the thing. When I found out what had happened, uh I immediately, I prayed, but then I immediately got on the phone with her and I said, we need to get the prayer team on this, and I explained what was going on. She began to intercede. We were all interceding. And I still have it on my desk. Because the Lord said through her immediately, He said, the recovery will be quicker than anybody thinks. And he said, There will be no trauma in memory from this accident. You know, I look at this family, and then I asked the question, is it important where you go to church? Is it important that you're in the plan of God for your life? Who taught those young ladies to pray in the Holy Ghost? Who did that? They learned that in church. Where somebody, some teacher, was in the plan of God for their life. Their kids are going to be saved in the back tonight. And for the rest of their life, they're going to have any number of teachers. They're going to have elementary school teachers, they're going to have high school teachers, they're going to have college teachers, they're going to have teachers after their adults. But here's the thing: nobody else will ever be able to say, I took them and introduced them to the God of heaven. Except that person that says, this is what God wants me to do. If you work in the children's ministry, that is not a minor assignment. That is a reality. We're changing people's lives. If you usher, that is not a minor assignment. You should not approach it as a minor assignment. If you greet, that's not a minor assignment. If you run the camera, that's not a minor assignment. Right now, we are touching people in Israel. We're touching people in Australia. We're touching people in Italy. We're touching people around the world that we have verified numbers that they tune in on Sunday morning to watch us. If you run the camera, you're helping spread the everlasting gospel around the world. Because you're where God told you to be. Doing what God told you to do. Isn't that wonderful? Hallelujah. Let's bow our heads today. Father, we thank you, we praise you, we glorify you for all that you're doing in our churches, in our fellowship, in the lives of your people. Father, I just pray today. I pray today in the name of Jesus. Lord, first of all, I pray if there's anyone that does not know Jesus, they've not made Jesus the Lord of their life. Father, I pray today in the name of Jesus that they would come to know you. I pray that the Holy Spirit would deal with them right now, draw them, draw them to the side of the risen Christ in the name of Jesus. Rather here in this room or watching online, well, your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed. If that's you, and you say, Pastor Still, I'm not where I need to be with Jesus. I'm not living for him the way that I should. Maybe I'm away from him, cold in my walk with him, not where I need to be. If that's you, with every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody's watching you at all. If you would lift your hand right now and say, Pastor, would you pray for me? Would you pray for me? Would you ask God to help me? Hallelujah. If your heart is right with God, we could ask for nothing better but while your head's bowed, while we're in a state of prayer. If you would be here today and you would say, Pastor, I want to know for sure that I'm walking in the plan of God for my life. I want to know that I'm where God wants me to be, doing what God wants me to be doing. Would you pray with me that He'll quicken to me those things that I should be doing? Would you raise your hand today? Would you say, Pastor, that's me? God bless you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for those hands. God bless you. Amen. Let's pray today. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask you now to show me your plan, your purpose for my life. Because I want to be in the middle of it. Whatever it may be. I resign myself to it and I commit to it. As you show me, I'll walk in it. And I'll give you the glory and the praise and the honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. God is so good to us. Now look, the Lord heard your prayer. He'll help you. He'll show you what you need to be doing. Amen. Hallelujah. And just stay with it. Just stay with it. Hallelujah. Let's stand up today. Just in case anybody asks, we are getting you out of here right on time. It's exactly 12 02 if you're taking medicine. Hallelujah. God's good too.