Otha Turnbough - The Dangerous Trap That Destroys Powerful Christian Leaders

You know, over the years, we have restored a lot of things. And, um, but it was more in the area of, you know, we've always, of course, teach and promote and live holiness. You know, a lot of what we have done is institute the things of God. You know, prayer, fasting, tongues, demonology, deliverance, inner healing, the prophetic ministry, dreams, interpretation of dreams, the numbering system, kind of, um, we have restored those things, but they are still in their elemental forms.

Because in order for you to walk in those areas deeply, you have to be people of impeccable character. Because the more God increases power, the more there is the potential for you to be corrupted by that power. And so, at this stage now, um, uh, and and I feel right now the same way I did when I first started the church in 2011. Still feel the same way. I mean, I feel that that nervousness that I know the Lord is getting ready to do something again. And so, this next phase is going to require us to do what the Lord wants and not what we want.

So, let me make this statement. You know, naturally, because I am the leader, I get a lot of attention. I get a lot of praise. I get a lot of accolades. Also get a lot of attacks, okay? But this is the point where, in order for it to continue the right way, it cannot be about my preaching. It can't. It must be about what God wants. You need to know that that will require me to now start using other men and women of God to give you what God wants you to know. I can't, and I understand this, don't get me wrong. Nobody has done anything wrong or anything. But, but one of the things that I noticed is is that I felt myself felt myself becoming hostage to wanting to be here all the time because first-time visitors come, even from other countries, every weekend. And so, but, you know, and in most cases, I will always be here. Okay.

Um, I know next month, a couple of times, I'm going to be gone. December. Um, I have to go, of course, to Nigeria. But, um, and and so, for the most part, I will be here. As you know, you know, my spiritual dad, Bishop, 45 years, he said that he's been out the pulpit three times in 45 years on a Sunday. Because when you're, because when you're a pastor, you're supposed to smell like the sheep. Smell like the airplane. You understand what I'm saying? And so, because you smell like the sheep, how do you know a shepherd smells like the sheep? Why? Because he's with the sheep. And so, but there are going to be times when, because of my calling and just different things, you know, I get so many invitations a week, it's ridiculous. But I don't even usually pay attention to them because there are invitations I'm supposed to take, but most of them I'm not supposed to take because the enemy will use that to, um, get me off track.

Watch this. You have become popular now. So it feels good to be out there just hobnobbing and traveling. And that ain't got nothing to do with anything. That is not ministry. That's just you speaking someplace. And so, so I'm just letting you know that that it's very important for you to not make me a, um, what do they call them? Yeah. An idol. Thank you. That's a better word. I was getting ready to say a, uh, what do they call them? Uh, Hollywood, not Hollywood preachers. Celebrity pastor. Yeah. It's very important for you to not make me that. Because if you make me that, there's nothing wrong with honor, nothing wrong with appreciation. And understand, man, this is a great person that is helping me grow. But if you make me an idol, it can cause God to start pulling back a little bit. You understand what I'm saying? Because this is not about me. Unfortunately, I get more accolades than I should because you see me, but you don't see the one that created everything. You heard the sermon, but there was another voice behind what I said. And so, because you can't see him, you give me the praise. And so, nothing wrong with, don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with saying, "Hey, that was a great sermon, man. I just appreciate that." Nothing wrong with that. It's just that you have to recognize that I'm a regular person just like you. And that God has graced me and gifted me with pastoring the same way a lawyer is, just like you. He's been graced with a being able to argue cases and win them. Just like a doctor is a man, just like you. And he has been gifted and graced to be able to suspend the body, to be able to do operations. The list goes on and on and on and on and on. So, God uses us differently. Um, but yet we are all the same.

And I have to say that because, um, there are going to be times when you're going to see me bring, we're going to be introducing more of the prophetic ministry where you pull people out the audience and give them a word. Um, some of our own people will be doing that. But I also have a couple of other people that I will bring in for that. Um, um, inner healing and deliverance is going to spiral into multiple different ways. I have another guy. He is an absolute genius in that particular area. And so, you cannot make it about me. There was a person one time that came to the church service and when they found out that I was not speaking, they said, "Oh, I'm going back home." That's very disrespectful to the Holy Spirit. Because if the Holy Spirit is in someone, um, he can use them. How many know God spoke through a donkey? Okay. And so, so, so the person got to the parking lot and got convicted and said, "Oh, that's the wrong attitude." And when they came back in the service, the Lord gave that person the answer to the person that was speaking. You know, it's a, it's a sad thing. Whoever is speaking, lock in on them and say, "Father, I thank you that you got a word for me in the mouth of this man and the mouth of this woman and the mouth of this boy and the mouth of this girl." If I bring the energizer up here, come on, energizer buddy. Bring it as you beat them drums. Okay. So, you understand what I'm saying? You want to keep. How many know? Oh, I thought my wife was getting up already to grab the microphone. That is too hilarious.

So, how many of you know that Jesus started out preaching, then he called 12 disciples? Now, y'all go out there and do what I'm doing. Okay? And so, it's very important you all to understand that our ministry is blowing up and is cutting edge and all of those things. But in order, one of the things that I have been, uh, looking at is how many other moves of God and how many other ministries, they were just like this, but then they died. They died because they got caught up in the lights and the people. And there's nothing wrong with excitement and all of that. But at this stage, you have to pull back and you have to just sit on the couch and just pray and analyze things. And just, and I have so much stuff coming. I know part of it is good, some of it's three. Part of it is good, some of it is just, uh, a little bit of it is God. A major part of it is good and the rest of it is the enemy throwing good things at me to get me involved in good things so that I'll end up doing God's thing. And so, so, you know, I'll try to do my best. We are going to create. We are, and and I don't know, and I'm, I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit about that, cuz I want to create a calendar so that people that come from other countries and things, they can know, you know, uh, when I'm not going to be here so that they can schedule things around that, you know, but that's the only purpose is, is is so, you know, because there are some people that do want to meet me, different things like that, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you just have to keep it in perspective. You understand what I'm saying?

You know, because one of the things the Holy Spirit told me years ago, oh, he said, "Be careful because of where I'm taking you." And he gave me a strange statement that I understand now. He said, "Be careful." He said, "Because Christians love their movie stars, too." And they'll make you a movie star, you know, uh, but you have regular movie stars like Keanu Reeves, you know, he's one of the, you know, the Matrix and all the stuff that he's done. That dude still catches the bus and rides a bicycle. You have to keep. I'm teaching you also, whether it be ministry, whether it be promotion, whether it be business, you have to keep yourself very, very low. There are many millionaires and billionaires that people judge them because they were rich, but you weren't there when they were homeless or they were broke. You understand what I'm saying? So, I, I just put that plug out there because I know next month I might have a couple of speakers. And and I trust me, I won't have anybody up here dry. That's the one, one of the reasons why I haven't had too many speakers. Is because I should say this. But if you ate in a steakhouse, you're not trying to go to McDonald's the next day. That's a terrible example, but you know what I'm saying? Trying to keep it right. There's a standard, and I don't want that standard to be dropped. The standard is not your preaching style. The standard is, do you know enough word to give the people so that they can use this? You understand what I'm saying? So, so it's going to be very, very interesting.

I'm at the stage where, um, I'm looking at my time. I'm getting better. I'm almost there now. I'm typically only 10 or 15 minutes over, except for that one debacle where I was 70 minutes, three weeks ago. There's a scene in the scripture when it came to David being made king. Now, remember, David being made king was the will of God. So it's not so much about him being made king as much as it was about the will of God being established. And so, what it said was, David, King David, got to a certain point where, in order for it, the will of God with that kingdom to be established, it required other strong men to be attached to David in order to establish him as king. And when you read, it's a, it's a, it's a masterful scripture because it, it says from this tribe, you know, this group, they brought 55,000 masters at sword and shield. And then it said, "And from this group, they brought 15,000." All of them were left-handed and could sling a rock at a woman's hair and not miss. So, the people that were attaching themselves to David, these weren't weak men. These were strong men to establish a kingdom. Y'all got that? So that's a principle in ministry. God wants to establish a ministry and make it just so strong and such a juggernaut. Okay? That now it requires you to get other men that are just as strong, if not stronger than you, to help establish this thing so that we can have a people that are just giants in the spirit and in the natural. Y'all follow me? Okay. So, so I'm just, I'm just, y'all can tell I'm prepping you for other people. So, when you see somebody else up here like, "Who is this?" Just know that's one of them ones that's strong, that's called to come establish the kingdom of Lion Heart Church. Y'all got that? Okay.

Meanwhile, I got all type of people trying to get up here. If you trying to get up here, that's proof that you don't need to be up here. I went to the bank one time. High-level folk always try to hide. Low-level folk always trying to be. Went to the bank one time and when, and, um, and I was in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. I was doing something and, and the banker, he looked at me, just kept looking at me. I wasn't saying anything. I was just sitting there looking like I just left the beach. He said, "You're a pastor, aren't you?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Yeah." He said, "I can tell." Yeah. He said, "I can also tell that you're high level." I said, "Why would you say that?" He said, "The high-level guys that come in here," he said, "they're real simple, laidback, chill, don't want nobody to know who they are." He said, "The low-level guys," he said, "they come in here, boy. I'm a pastor to the third degree. I need to know. I used to work for the cell phone company." That's exactly how they would come in. Watch this. Come in there with a, with a $2,000 suit on. I'm pastor such and such, such. Uh, you know, I'm hoping that, uh, God can use you. I'm, uh, serious to give us our cell phone service free. Well, if God is with you, you should be paying your bill and everybody else's bill.

When we first started, it was a rock and roll guy. He, he did all the sound for rock and roll shows and, and he, one of them guys. He had an old black 18-van, hair down to his back. He looked like he was broke millionaire. I never forget what he told me. He was putting my sound system in. He said, "Because of what I do," he said, "the two groups that never pay their bills." He said, "The club and the church." I was like, "We in the same bills as the church and both of them start with a C." He said, "Yep, they never pay any bills on them." I was like, "Wow." But anyway, let's go. Revelation 3:2. So, they put, they put a, a 45-minute clock on me. So, it's down to 30 minutes now. So, let's, let's, Oh, I'm going to get, Oh, we shall get there. "Wake up. Strengthen what little remains. For even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God." That's something that we all need to be doing in the last days is that we need to be in the word, and we need to be in prayer. We need to be in study. We need to be asking questions to make sure that our actions line up with God's requirements.

I was listening to a, uh, podcast of one of the guys that I'm going to ask share some things with you. And he said, "As a pastor, you have to be very careful." He said, "Because you might have been pastoring for 20 years, but according to God, only two of them count." I was washing the car. I just stopped right there. So, so let me add this with, with where we're going. The most important thing, one of the most important things in scriptures is your love walk and your character. That the Bible puts into nine categories of fruit. Very rarely talked about, hardly ever. We have to go into that because where we are right now, if we don't stay in the area of relationships, stay in the area of love. I'm talking about teaching it. Stay in the area of teaching you the nine fruit of the spirit and how they grow and how they work, you will be limited because God is never interested in putting you on a pedestal that your character can keep you on. So, this is very, very, very important. The most important thing to God is character. Not power, not money, not church services, none of that. Not prayer, none of that. Not gifts of the spirit, not deliverance. The most important thing to God is character. Okay.

So, let's look at the next one. We're going to read through these and then we're going to let you do a little self-assessment test. "Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the law?" Moses? Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind." And I'm going to know if you love the Lord like that, we'll be able to easily see that in your lifestyle. We can easily see that in your time. Speaking of time, how you know they about to get rid of daylight saving time. I think with that, so like it can still be dark at 8:30 in the morning, still be light at 10:00 at night, something like that. We'll worry about that when it gets here. "This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself." So, the same way that you love God is the same way that you love your neighbor. And the same way that you love your neighbor is seen as the way that you love God. And that's something that you're going to have to practice. He said, "The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." So, the entire Bible, everything that we do, everything that we say is based on loving God with our soul, mind, heart, and strength, and loving people the exact same way. Okay? And you're going to have to start practicing this, y'all. You're going to have to, for some of us, we have to stop coming to church to hear a good sermon and come to church to hear a sermon to be actually having a practice. You need to go home and, and, and some people just come to church to hear a sermon to just keep their health insurance intact. Other individuals, they come, they take notes, but they never read them. Don't become a professional note-taker. Okay. And so, uh, these are very, very important because it's struggling a little bit this morning, but I'll be okay. It's a difficult thing to change the mentality of the church when they've been programmed this way for the last hundred years. It just is. They just. Anyway, let's just keep on reading.

How many know it's the word that changes people though? Not me. Anything you love. This is a statement. Anything you love more than God has disqualified you for the best that God would give you. I'm going to read that a second time. Anything you love more than God, or anything you put ahead of God, has disqualified you for the best that God was going to give you. Because if God gives you his best while you're doing it wrong, you'll never change. "Willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land. Obey and serve me and you'll spend your days in prosperity and your hands and pleasures." You got to do both. How many know it's not good to give stuff to people that are immature? They'll never grow up. Okay.

Matthew 25. Look, look at what he said about people. "Then the king," this the same message I taught Wednesday. Of course, it always comes out different with different examples. I, uh, I'm teaching the same thing until y'all get it. "Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, you fed me. Thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you invited me into your home. I was naked, you gave me clothes. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me.'" Uh, go back for a moment. Notice when he said you were sick, he didn't say you were sick and you healed me. I was sick and you cared for me. Because he, you know, people that are sick, it helps sometimes that they just have a companion that sits with them, someone that talks to them, soothes them. You understand what I'm saying? "I was in prison and you visited me." Then the righteous ones will say, "Lord, when do we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing? When do we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?" H. And then the king will say, "Whenever you see that phrase," I tell you the truth, he is getting ready to tell you something that is so real, you're going to have a hard time believing how real it is. "I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me."

How many know there are many people that have gotten beat up in school because the big brother came to defend his little sister or little brother. And so, this is, this is a rule. This is a law. This is something that God, Jesus looks at. And that is now one of the patterns. You'll notice is he doesn't say anything about about when you did it unto the sinner. You did it to me. Okay. The reason why he doesn't say, he reason he doesn't say when you do it to anyone, you did it to me. He said, "No, it's what you did to your, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me because we're all one." Now, this is not an excuse to slap the sinner, but he doesn't put sinners in this equation because no sinner is a brother or sister of Christ. They are brother or sister of Satan. As long as you're not saved, you don't belong to God. God is not your father. You were created by him, but you are not his son yet. You have to be adopted into the family because of sin. So, we said, "When you do it until the least of these, my brothers." These are the Christians that get on your nerves. The ones who just got saved yesterday but still smoking weed. I'm just going to look down and see, you know, and I'm going to keep on saying this. I'm going to keep on saying this because, you know, some people listen, some people don't. Somebody sent me a testimony or something and I think they said they had been listening to us for five months, but during that five months, the teaching saved their entire marriage. Okay.

These things are very important because there are some things that have to be brought to your attention. I know I'm just talking kind of simple today, you know, and, uh, but, but if, if Jesus, if you watch this, if you're being judged on how you treat and talk to the homeless Christian, how are you being judged based on how you talk to your wife and your husband? Are y'all following me? And that, that's why he said, "I tell you the truth." Because it's going, it's going to go over your heads. You're not going to think it's that deep, but, but we are recording every interaction you have with one of my brothers and sisters is the equivalent of. Watch this. Y'all ready for this? I know this going to get me in trouble on social media. Care is not. Watch this. So, when you were talking to the young guy, um, that was still smoking weed. Okay. Um, yeah, that was me still smoking weed. Are y'all following me? When you were talking to the Christian that was getting on your nerves, that was me getting on your nerves. He's seeing it this way. Whatever you do to the least of these, you're doing it to me. Y'all following me? Because how many know you're not mature yet? I said, you're not mature yet. Just because you know a couple of scriptures and come to church on time does not mean you are mature. Mature is character. Can you get slapped and keep on singing? Someone like, "Yeah, you're right. He is not through with me yet." I read a scripture a couple of days ago and it says, "God has great mercy on us because he knows that we are but dust." It's amazing. Christian. Tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, I was recording it. And so that's why the Bible says you have to give an account for every idle word that comes out of your mouth. Every idle word, every action. And I know it can be hard sometimes. But you have. See, the thing is, the Bible says the love of God can control you. It can't control you if it's not in you strong enough to control you. The love of God has to be in you so strong that it controls you past your flesh that wants to slap somebody, cuss somebody out, run them over with your car, all those different type of things that enter our minds when we're getting into it with somebody. It is the love of God that will control you when that person cuts you off and now you have turned it into a personal YouTube scene of cops and robbers. Why are you chasing them? What are you going to do when they stop? Okay. And so, how many know it's something that can easily set you off? Sometimes you are easily set off because you don't have enough substance in you to control that side of you and to put that side of you in prison. Okay?

Uh, I'll give you an example. How many of you have been in one scenario and, and I, I've shared this before. You've been in one scenario and something happened and you're like, "Huh, I think I'm growing. I didn't burn the building down and say, 'I keeps it real.' That is amazing." How many you have been surprised at that? You're like, you're like, Jesus is real. I'm doing pretty good. And then how many know the next day? He's not through working with me yet. We love to quote that. Okay. And so, so, so here's the thing you have to remember. God already knows where you're going to succeed and where you're going to fail. You don't know. So God will throw you in situations. He will allow that person to come across your path so that you can locate you so that you know what you need to work on. He knows what you need to work on. You don't know what you need to work on. So in order for me to show you what you need to work on, we need to let the lady at McDonald's throw the hamburger in your face and walk off the job and stand there. Let's see what they going to do. What you going to do? You can tell sometimes you can tell the love of God is working in somebody because something will be going down and they start laughing. See, the laugh is, the laugh is, the love of God is controlling me, but if it leaks out, we about to be on the news. That's what that laugh is. Now, some of us laugh. Some of us have grandmothers, they start singing old hymns. If something negative is going down and your grandmother starts singing an old hymn, it is not because she is having a Holy Ghost moment. Lord, this, this what the hymn is. Lord, don't let me cuss this woman out. Lose my salvation today. I got this Easter hat on, Jesus. So, let me take it off and use it as a Frisbee to cut her neck off. That's what all that humming means. And so, the humming trying, they're, is it him humming? They're humming trying to keep themselves in the love of God.

A few of us, you ever done this one? You, you can be in a restaurant, you can be in a particular scenario. This is a few of us, this is what we do. It's going down and that's all we do. Any ever been in a situation and you just walked out, got in your car, and drove home? And I don't like bad customer service. That can pull me out the love of God. So, so in order to stay in, there have been many of times I call a place, you know, "Can I help you?" Click. Call back. "Can I help you?" Same person. Click. Let me wait 10 minutes. Am I telling the truth? >> And those are all of the emotions and the nuances that we deal with in the course of everyday life. But you can overcome most of that to the degree you have the love of God in you. And the love of God does not get in you by confession. It gets in you by being in the word. The word is substance. You read it. You see the words, but you can't. Watch this. The same way that the Bible says when you're praying in tongues, out of your being is coming rivers of living water, but you can't see them. Is the same way that when you're reading the word, there's water pouring on the inside of you, but you can't see it. That's the reason why the devil likes to keep you out of the word and have no word time daily because he knows it's the invisible stuff that's getting in you. The same way that you eat the banana, you see the banana, but you don't see the potassium. You see the orange, but you don't see the vitamin C. It's always the invisible stuff that counts. Woo! The orange is the carrier of the vitamin C. The banana is the carrier, are y'all following me? Of the potassium. The physical word that you read is the carrier of the invisible stuff. And when you open it anyway, so go to the next one.

So, you know, hey, you got to practice this. And let me say something. This is not. You actually have to get. This should be a part of your prayer time. This should be a part of your confession time. "Father, in the name of Jesus, as I go forth today, help me to be sensitive to treating everyone well, treating everyone right. Help me to be a person of love and humility and character." You got to do that. "Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me." Just. I got to keep going over these scriptures about love because people, you know, even the sinners who are filthy said that they love God. No, you don't even like God. You just use him. That's what you say. You know, "I use God." When you receive that reward, "I use God." I don't love God because Jesus said this. See, I don't know who started this mess. "Love is love." What does that even mean? A microphone is a microphone. We know that. Why are you saying it that way? "Love is love." That's their trying. That's the way of saying of love is whatever you like or whatever you feel. That's fine. That's your definition. Let's look at God's. "Those who accept my commandments and obey them." Because some accept but don't obey. Others obey, but they don't really accept it in their heart. They only obey because they're afraid of me, not because they understand that keeping the commandments is right. It's easy for me to obey because I know it's right. Any other thing is wrong. "Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me." See, hopefully, it's still this way. But when you first dating that person and you start falling in love, we were willing to do anything for them. Here she said, "Anything." Taking Bishop down memory lane. I mean, I, I mean, I remember. I remember when we, Raf and I from Detroit, we're dating and, and, and so women know they're falling in love. Sometimes men don't know. I know that seems crazy, but, but so, but I remember, uh, I don't know how deep the snow was. She lived on the west side. I lived on the east side. And, and that snow was deep. I got up early, like, do you remember what time I got? See, she would remember. I got up 5:00 in the morning, trekked my car all the way to the west side, pulled out a shovel, cleaned off her and her mom's car, and shoveled the sidewalk on her mom. Okay. I loved. So she didn't even have to ask me to go through that trial and tribulation. Had it been one of the ex-girlfriends? No. I don't mean that that way, but I'm just saying. Okay. And so, so when people begin to fall in love, they'll stay on the phone as long as possible. They'll drive to another state just to see that individual. He'll get on a car for three, four hours and drive to the college just to sit with her for 10 minutes. She starts falling in love. She wears that outfit. She adjusts her style, everything. I'm going to leave this alone.

"Those who accept my commandments and obey them." I, I felt myself going down this line and I only got 11 minutes left. "Those who obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my father will love them and I will love them and reveal myself to each other them." There are many people that the Lord has not revealed himself to you the way he wants to because your actions say that you don't love him. And love is attractive. Love is not a choice. It's a commandment. Next, "Love is patient." This is the definition since they talking about love is love. "Love is patient and love is kind." Everybody say amen to that. "Love is patient and love is, and, and see, and love is also a fruit. So you can, these things you can grow in these things. So your love can be very, very small or it can grow and become very, very big. That's the cool thing about any of these things. You can grow in them. We'll get over into that when it comes talk about the fruit. Love is patient. Love is kind. There's nothing like kind people. Okay? I mean, you ever, you ever been, you ever been to the grocery store or someplace and the person that was helping everybody just seemed like they had the gift of kind? They just make you sitting up here, you can't even afford these groceries, but this lady made you feel special about going through all of this money and, and God bless you and do you need any help? And I just love people like that. Nothing like a good. Is it waiter or server? I tend to be using old words. My wife is always rebuking me. That is not the word you're supposed to use. Okay. It's a server. What do I call them? Waiter. Okay. But there's nothing like a good waiter just sounds better. I know that. But a wait, you know what? See, you know why that's in my mind? Because the definition of wait actually means to serve. When it says, "Wait on the Lord and he shall renew your stress," >> TD, it's in my mind. TDJ said, "Wait on the Lord." You're supposed to be serving the Lord as you wait on him. And maybe that's why it's in my mind. You're like, "That ain't got nothing to do with the steak restaurant we went to." Okay. But there's nothing like a, a, a good server who serves very, very well. It's like they know the right time to leave and they know the right time to show up. I mean, it's like a finesse to it. They feel the waters versus, you ever been at the restaurant, you're having a conversation and, and they just keep, and they walk up and they just start talking. "Is everything good?" They just brick you out of your focus. Can you just pause for a second? And they show up every five minutes. Boom. Whatever. I'm just getting personal here.

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude." Excuse me. Rude. Some of us are good at that. And some of us like to keep it real. There's nothing worse than a rude person that thinks they're going to get a trophy from Jesus because of their rudeness. Anyway, come on. Let's let these people in. Give them congratulations. Congratulations. Amen. Congratulations. Congratulations. I see you jumped in the pool, BROTHER. CONGRATULATIONS. Y'all had our own church service, Brother James. It's a lot of people. Hallelujah. Another valuable lesson. You all only the Holy Spirit knows how to orchestrate things to keep them fresh. Celebrations never get old. They don't. And being able to do that every week, celebrating children, celebrating baptism, celebrating people getting filled with the Holy Spirit, that's just a wonderful thing. Okay? So, let's all work on our rudeness. "It does not demand its own way." It does not demand its own way. Nothing worse than going on vacation with somebody and they just got to have their way. That's why I don't go on vacation with nobody except my wife. No. When my wife and I go on vacation, we do nothing. We read, sleep, stare at the water, and eat. We go to them areas, we have camel riding. Wonderful. Let somebody else ride them camels. Parasailing. Nope. I'm just joking. I'm afraid of heights. I'm not doing that. All of that. Remember that one time we went to Jamaica and see, probably that's what was it? To Jamaica, to the Virgin Islands, our, our honeymoon. That's probably why I don't do excursions. All of my side stories are hilarious, by the way, because we paid money for the glass-bottom boat ride. This little brother took us out there in a half-broken canoe with a little plastic window. We steered off from shore, got out there, and there was a fish about that small that went underneath that glass. He pointed at it, and then because the rock and roll goldfish show was not good enough, he realized that that he had taken our money and there was no fish. What did he do? He jumped off the canoe, went underneath it, and waved at us through the glass. Am I lying? I was like, it's time for us to get back on the cruise ship. I have not paid for an excursion since. What type of ghetto foolishness is this? I never forgot that. So, every time somebody try to get me to do something, I get a flash. Nope. Nope. Nope. I ain't come out here to feed no camel. They walk too slow anyway. I came here only got a certain amount of time on this vacation. We're not doing that. Anyway, see, these are the type of things that can get you irritable.

"It keeps no record of being wrong." That's a biggie, y'all. Keeps no record of. That's hard because when someone does something, you immediately think about how many times they did it and you have to try your best to deal with the moment. Now, there are times when you do need to bring to a person's because God did that in scripture with the children of Israel. He said, "Y'all keep doing this. Keep doing this. Keep doing this." There is a time when you have to say, "Look, there's a pattern here. You keep doing this and say you're going to stop." Okay, but we're talking about you're keeping records of a wrong and you're holding unforgiveness. That's not the love of God. All right, go to the next one. "It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out." "Love never gives up." We are in a generation that loves a lie. They know it's a lie. They don't care. They, they, they, um, um, hate the truth and, and because they hate the truth, they are willing to deceive themselves. The problem with deceiving yourself, if you keep deceiving yourself with the lie, you will eventually believe that it's the truth. "Love never gives up, never lose faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance." Go to the next one for me. I'm going to add a couple more and then let you do a self-assessment and we'll be done. What time is it? Cuz I have another meeting and another. Okay, good.

"Always be humble and look at that. Always be humble and gentle." Well, they did me wrong. "Always be humble and gentle." Well, they took an extra $50 out of my bank account without permission. "Always be humble and gentle." I wanted to read that to the lady that was in the bank because she was cussing out everybody. She was letting them have it. Okay. "Be patient with each other." Watch this. Patience does not count until the person is getting on your nerves. Because if they're not getting on our nerves, there's no reason to be patient. Which lets you know that God knew that we were going to get on each other's nerves. "Be patient with each other. Making allowance for each other's faults because of your love." See, when the love of God gets in you and you have to learn how to put it in you on purpose, you actually can't put love in you. You have to put the word in you and it is the seed for love and the love will begin to be a byproduct of the seed. Y'all got that? Go to the next one.

"If someone has enough." This is a good one. "If some, if someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion, how can God's love be in that person?" Got to noticing that that love is an action word. You know, there's nothing worse than someone that has all the money in the world. You ask them for something and they say, "I paid my price. You got to pay yours." That's crazy, y'all. Let me tell you something. You never actually understand that scripture that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive until you actually help someone that really had a real need in a breakdown crying. It's a different feeling than getting money. How many now? Getting money feels good, too. You know when you open up a birth, how many you open up a birthday card and before you open that card? That's what I do. I'm just keeping it real. As they say, when I see that birthday card, you know, I'm like, I'm going to read all of these wonderful, loving, illustrious words. Let me see if I see some green on the other side. Oh, hallelujah. Now I can read the rest. Nobody trying to get a birthday card with no money. It's the thought that counts. Nor I can't buy anything with thoughts. I thought if I had on a nice suit, I would act right. Apparently, it is not working. How many know this is the type of stuff that goes through your mind? Go to the next one.

"Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions because actions do speak louder than words." Go to the next one. "Such love has no fear because perfect love, or a better way of saying it is, love that has grown and matured will push fear out of you. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment. And this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love." Hey, go to the next one.

So, we'll end here by just briefly going over all these. These are some ways to tell that you love God. Cuz let me say something. Do I want to go that far? No. See, there are times like this is easily understood in a marriage. There are times that we are naturally self-centered and can naturally be selfish. Sometimes that's just natural. You think about yourself first. Okay? So sometimes in a marriage, it's about the other individual. It's not about you. So sometimes you can be in a marriage too self-centered. In a marriage, you can be too selfish. In a marriage, you don't really think about your spouse and serving them. That's okay as long as when it's shared, you begin to try to move into that because you love them. Y'all follow me? I hope y'all follow me. So, your mind say, "Hey, you know, you haven't bought me flowers in 10 in 10 years, and I want some flowers." Well, you can either make some excuse, well, you know, I love you. No, I don't, cuz you haven't bought me flowers in 10 years. Or you can say, "Oh, man. I'm sorry." And you can start moving into that. And so, as you start moving into that area where you lack, it then proves that you love this individual. I am amazed, you all. I'm just going to add this one little thing here. I am absolutely amazed how we take simple things and make it too complex. If your husband said that he wanted to watch the game for three hours in silence, what is so hard to understand about that? Here you go. Why? Cuz I want to scene. There was another scene in the Matrix in that guy said, he said, "You don't have to understand to obey because the person is asking." You don't feel what they feel. Always, it's so funny when I bring up about that plant and flowers issue. She asked for roses that are going to be dead in three days. And so for a man, that's that's illogical. No, no, no. We need to we need to execute some logic here because logically we should buy stuff that lasts a long time. But see, men like stuff that lasts a long time. Women don't like stuff that lasts a long time. That's what they got to shop for. They got 1,500 dresses and it's an event tomorrow, but they need a new dress. But men, we like, well, I got a suit. I'll just wear that suit to the wedding, to the funeral, to the graduation. Matter of fact, when I die, you can just PUT THIS SUIT ON ME. That's how men are. We just like stuff the same all the time. You go to this.

dude's apartment, and he got a couch that he didn't even buy new. He found it on the street. You go visit that dude 10 years later, if he has not married or got a woman, that couch is still sitting there.

See, so if you try to understand a woman from a man's point of view, oh yeah, you hit from the as soon as the gun went off. Well, you failed. You can't even finish the race because you're thinking this way.

And so that's what it means to serve one another in love. When the person comes to your table, they don't order for you what they want, they order for you what you want. Even if they don't like the food that you order, they still give it to you because that's what a servant does. And we are to serve one another in love. We don't have to understand why this person wants this. Hey, would you all come help me with this? Hey, I like this. Hey, I like that.

That's why I tell people, y'all, I can't. Never mind. Let's go to the first one. Well, see, um, people like to give me gifts. I don't like to say, I don't like to say, "Well, just give me finances." That's just a pet peeve that I have with me. I need to get over it because of, you know, the fear of somebody thinking that I'm some money preacher or something.

There's a difference between a money preacher and a prosperity preacher. Prosperity preacher preaches what the world says about everything, let alone money. Jesus said, "I came to give you life and life more abundantly." A money preacher is the one who tells you that God told him that you got $777.77 in your pocket. A money preacher is the one that has a line. All the people giving $500 here, all the people giving $100 here, all the all the rest. And then the prophecies are bigger based on the amount that you give. That's a money preacher.

So sometimes I'm afraid to say certain things, y'all. But but you got to stop giving me all these gifts. First of all, I don't have a place to put this stuff. Second of all, a lot of this stuff is not my taste. I have to keep it real. So, so if you want to really do something, just just send me some cash or just bless the poor. How about that?

If it's so you won't think I'm trying to, you know, because there have been too many times here lately I've been tempted to use a t-shirt to clean the rims on my car. The temptation is real. So, so I'm a simple, and my wife will tell you, I'm the one that will throw stuff away like that. My wife still accusing me of throwing a couple of things away. I know you threw it away. I know you threw that away. I'm like, I do not remember throwing that away. Now, mysteriously, some of my shorts have disappeared. The ones that had holes in them, thread hanging down like I've been in a battle. Anyway, I can't take all of that. I just, I just can't.

Here's the first proof that you love God. If you love him, you will love his word. Now, that can be an acquired taste. Any of you stopped eating a lot of sugar, and at first what you ate felt, it tasted very bland. But if you kept on, you start loving what you ate, then you went back to what you thought you loved, and it was horrible. It proves that everything is an acquired taste. If you love him, you will love his word. So, you got to get into it and then stay in it, and eventually, you'll have an acquired taste where you will love the word more than anything.

"Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long."

Let me ask y'all a quick question. Side note. Um, is me standing here a good place or a bad place? She said, "I just don't want you to fall." If I fall with one step, I need to go to the doctor. Okay. I just want to make sure I'm trying to find my proper placement. You know, I don't, I love walking on the floor, but I understand the people in the back may not be able to see me. So, we might do something where we put my face on the screen, but I just wanted to ask. Okay.

"Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them how often? All day."

Let's look at another one. If you love him, you will love his house. And let me go back to something. When it comes to the word, I said this Wednesday, it, it won't just be that you love his word. Another way we can tell that you love the word is you're upset because you haven't been spending enough time in it. You understand what I'm saying? You're like, "Man, I got to get back in the word." That proves you love it. "Man, I haven't been in my word lately." See, that proves that you have a desire for it. So, it's so funny that in the midst of reading it or in in the midst of not reading it, we can still tell that you love it.

If you love him, you will love his house. "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.'" Next, "How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of heaven's armies." It's the number one way that God identifies himself as the leader of the armies of heaven. "I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord with my whole being, body and soul. I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young close to your altar, O Lord of heaven's armies, my king and my God. What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises."

Interlude means stop here and play a little music while you think about this. Yeah. Go ahead. Next one.

If you love him, you will love to give. We're not just talking about, we're not just talking about giving in the house of God. We're talking about you'll love to help people. You want to see people blessed. You want to see them come up. Okay, since you excel, this was a scenario by which there were some rich churches and there was a poor church, and they asked Paul, asked all of the rich churches to collect an offering to help the poor church. He says, "Since you excel in so many ways in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us, I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving. I am not commanding you to do this, but I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of all the other churches."

In other words, if you love God, we can tell by whether or not you give to him or not. Some people, they just give God a little tip every once in a while. So, it's uh, see, we can tell if you love God versus if you love stuff. Stuff didn't do anything for you. Stuff won't do anything for you. Stuff is not going to do anything for you except for you believe the people are impressed with your car, but they're not impressed with you. They're looking at the car, not you.

The man in the next door. One of the lessons that I learned from that book is they say, "Live life like you're the only one on the planet." Go to the next one.

But this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only. So, God, when God loved you so much, he gave his one and only. Most people won't give their one and only. Most people won't give God 10%, 5%, or 1%. They give God a dollar every once in a while to let him know that, "Hey, I was in the house today."

I know this couple, uh, not couple, father and son. Son used to cut my hair. He used to cut my hair one time. And uh, he said, "Yeah." He said, "You know, this father is very extremely fal, just beyond fal." And he said, "Yeah." He said, "Once a year," he said, "we go to church once a year." He said, "We go in." And he said, "My dad will just give something in the offering and then he'll walk back out." And and see, in his mind, number one, he thinks God needs his money. That's the first problem. Okay. Second thing is, he thinks when he watches this, remember the scripture says, "Many will say to me in that day, 'Didn't we do this?'" And the third category is, "We did many wonderful works." That guy, if he doesn't give his life to Christ, is going to tell God, "Hey, don't you remember when I came to church and and and I gave the money and offered?" And the first response is, "And you thought I needed that?"

Watch this. Place you went to wasn't even a church. You just said it was one. See, this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. So that's one of the ways that we give. Y'all, there are times when you will give of your time, of yourself, and your finances, and the person will not do right by it. But you have to give and just let it go. Guess what? God gave his one and only. And yet Jesus said, most of the people on planet Earth will not accept the gift. But he did it anyway for the few that did.

"For we know how dearly God loves us." How dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to shout and dance in a church service. Mm- It's amazing. Nobody even says this. The main reason the Holy Spirit is given to you is to fill your heart with God's love. And we have reduced him to a feeling in a church service. Ah, that's all right. We turned it around.

Next one. If you love him, you will love others. He has given us this command: "Those who love God must also love their fellow believers." You notice he keeps talking about your brothers and sisters a lot. Brothers and sisters a lot. "Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions."

Next one. Think we're just about done. See, I'm only 13 minutes over. I'm getting there. The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love. Watch this. That comes from three areas. You will slow down your development if you do not have a pure heart. You will slow down your development if you don't have a clear conscience. And the only way for you to have a clear conscience is if you are not living in sin. And you will be able to speed up your development if you have genuine faith. In other words, you accept the word for what it says and not for what they told you it should say. Most people listen to preachers, they don't listen to the word.

But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions today. That's called YouTube, pickity talk, Instagrams, and and Facebook. For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. Don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to what? Serve one another. And it can be large and small. Let me tell you something. When you walk into the store and there's someone right behind you and you open the door and let them go in first, you actually serve that individual. Um, that's why the Bible says, "Even if you just give somebody a cup of water, you'll be rewarded."

See, so, so now God wants us to act this way for our own personal benefit and growth, but also you're going to be rewarded to the degree that you serve. Okay? Serve one another in love. You got, I'm, I'm meeting with some of them. One of the things we're going to be at, I'm going to open it up for men and women to join the parking lot staff because at this big old church, we need more people to join everything so that everyone doesn't get burned out. But right now, I got a parking lot staff. Those guys are never in church. One's been in here for months, out in the parking lot serving every weekend. Got children's church people. Never been in here. Why? Serving you in love, taking care of the babies so that they don't take over the church service by force. Have a crime convention. Okay. Was that the last one? One more.

That's right. I think I added this one. Uh, this is where we end. And this is also where we start. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality. So, people like to get all deep and everything with sexual immorality. It's very simple. Unless you were born a man, born a woman, y'all get married in front of a minister or a judge. Any type of sex outside of a husband and a wife is actually put into the category of sexual immorality. Anything. Yeah. Tell people that because they keep, people keep coming up with all these excuses. "Well, this," "Well, that." God doesn't do "well this" and "well that." He just does this: impurity, lustful pleasures. Pornography would fit into that. And and notice it says, "if you follow," which means something is trying to lead you into these things. Idolatry, anything you put ahead of God. Sorcery, all witchcraft fails in that, falls into that. Hostility, which is actually the spirit of anger. Quarreling, which is the spirit of strife. Jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition. It did not say ambition. Ambition that is only centered about, only centered around you. Dissension and division. Dissension is you produce division by dividing yourself away from the group because you don't need to be with the group. Division is you stay with the group and divide the group by dividing the group. I know some of my examples are ghetto whacking country, but you understand exactly what I'm saying. That's why I like, I, I love the South. As they say, nobody retires or moves up north. It's nothing against people in the north. If you love the north, just wonderful. But I love when I come down here and and in the north, "How are you doing today?" "Wonderful." In the South, "How y'all see?" I love that. My wife doesn't like it, but I do. We're still in the flesh. Envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life won't inherit the kingdom of God. That's very simple to me. But everybody making excuses. Your excuses cause you to be excused from your eternity.

But I just realized something. I need to do a bit of study. The Holy Spirit, remember, the Holy Spirit is the one who fills you with his love. The Holy Spirit, this is his role, is to produce this kind of fruit in your life. So the main role of the Holy Spirit is to produce fruit in your life, and that fruit is divided into nine different types of fruit. Love is a fruit. Joy is a fruit. Peace is a fruit. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. I say, I say faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Remember, the love of God will control you. So what's very interesting is, is each one of these fruits will also control the negative side of your nature. But it has to be planted in you through the word. Then it has to be watered by continuing in the word and prayer, focusing on it. And then guess what? As it grows, you will be thrown into scenarios so that you can locate yourself to see how much further you still need to go. And with all nine of those, there is no law against these things. But there are laws against the other ones we read. So all of the other ones, immorality, outbursts of anger, all those things, yeah, there are laws against that. So when you operate in it, you're breaking spiritual law. When you operate in those, there are no laws against these things. And so when you do them, you're not breaking anything. Y'all follow me? That is what we just read is the most important thing about Christianity. And it is to the degree that you develop yourself in these particular areas of fruit that will determine what God can and cannot do with you on this side as well as the other.

Okay. So I know a lot of us, we like to focus on business, and we'll go to school, and we'll develop ourselves, and take out loans, and do investments, and take classes, and different things like that. And some of us build ministries. Some of us like to get, you know, um, different levels of education and and PhD and then another PhD, then another PhD. I was done at the GED. I'm done. And I have more than a GED. I'm just saying I'm not. See, once I found, let me tell you something. That's just me. No, don't get me wrong. I'm not, I'm not against education. But but but sometimes what we call education is just test-taking. And so, and so, but true education is simply for you to learn for the rest of your life. To be reading for the rest of your life, to be studying for the rest of our life. Okay? Whenever I'm reading a book, I can be watching a movie, watching the news, and as soon as they say a word that I don't understand, I hit pause and I Google it. What does this word mean? This phrase that they just said, what does that phrase mean? You know, they got acronyms for everything nowadays. What is this acronym? And so that's how you educate yourself. Educate yourself. The the original definition for educate actually means to draw out, not to put in. Put this person in a scenario and let's see what comes out of you as a result of trying to figure out this problem. That's the actually definition, raw definition of educate. Not just force-feed information that we want you to. Let me tell you something. Understand that your kids in school, learn to have them reading other things and studying things outside of school because the schools in the United States, in particular, it's just programmed learning. Watch this. Just like cows, okay? This is the class. You, when the class starts, we're going to talk about the information half-heartedly for about 30, 30, 45 minutes, and then we're going to ring a bell. Ring, stop, and let's go over to this. Everything is programmed. Everything is programmed. We used to homeschool our kids. And um, I never forget, was it one of the kids did math for like two or three days straight? My wife said it was my son O. He did math for seven days straight. You know why? There was no bell to tell him to stop the natural flow of his education. What you end up accumulating by the 12th grade, you actually could have accumulated by the fourth. So your education is slowed down. I'm telling you, you have to learn how to teach your children to step outside of the elementary part that's programmed, read other books. Why you think they got kids that are millionaires at the age of eight or nine? And you have to, you have to be a part of the system, but also know how to bypass the system. Are you following me? But the truth be told is, you know, they, they program your education. But what you learn by the 12th grade, you could have learned that by the fourth grade. Problem is, they stopped it and then take a whole vacation for three, four months, and then come back and start the process again. Everything is programmed.

So it lets you know that anything that Mar, 11:08. Mar's testimony is she called a Fortune 500 company because she wanted to be a DBA. Okay. What a DBA is? Database administrator. Thank you. I couldn't remember. She just woke up one day said, "You know, that's the field I want to go into. Database administrator." Called a Fortune 500 company. This is what I want to do. "Yeah, ma'am. You can't just be calling a 500 company, Fortune 500 company. Tell them what you want to do." Boom. Boom. And Mar was very, very, you know, she's very diligent with that. So, um, they, uh, told her to get rid of her. He told her the truth. Okay. "If you're serious, then you need this, this, this." She says, "Okay." And so I think she got it in like, was it three months or something? So she did it. Got one. She got three certificates in three months. Yeah. Called the guy back. "I got him." Now he said, "Now I'm dealing with a liar." She kept pressing him. "I'm telling you, I got him." He said, "Prove it to me. Send it to her." I think he offered a job on the spot because the other people took two years. But she was not told that it took that long. So she applied diligence and tried to get it done as soon as possible. And what others, what the masses take two years to do, she did in three months. See, so when it comes to your development with things, your education with things, your, all of those, don't base it on what the world does because the world is always too slow, and the world is always too dumb, always too limited. Y'all follow me?

All right, that was some good stuff. Same message from Wednesday but completely different. So we need to practice these things. Get on top of these things so that the Lord can use us greatly. These are, and and there, there are some of you, a lot of you, that you are stuck in things because of what we're getting ready to show you, what we're getting ready to open you up to. I have other people that are going to be ministering on certain subjects, and it's, it's going to be very, very powerful. So I hope you're ready to go. There's nothing like going. This is what Bible means when it says, "Go from level to level. Go from glory to glory." And so we're going to keep on going until we get to the top of the mountain. Let's go ahead and stand. Hallelujah.

Just in case there's some people online and those who may have come in later, just want to show you a couple of salvation scriptures as we get ready to dismiss. All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground which can't be gathered up again. But God doesn't just sweep life away. He devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him. But the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. Go to the next one.

"Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin." Anytime you get stuck on something, you just need to take one of these scriptures and just stare at it, and that invisible substance will begin to soak into you to get rid of your condemnation of something that you did. Go to the next one.

"We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. Though we are overwhelmed by our sins, you forgive them all." That's a very powerful scripture. But this is how you give your life to him: "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God. It is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved." It says "openly" twice.

So here is the prayer for you to pray. And that is the salvation prayer. Prayer of rededication. This prayer makes you a member of heaven and a citizen of the kingdom of God. When you say this prayer and you mean it, they write your name in a book called the Book of Life. The most important book in all dimensions and universes combined. So, we're going to give you a moment, whether you're here online or in overflow, to say that prayer. And while you do, the rest of us are going to lift our hands, open up our mouths, and create an atmosphere of thanksgiving and praise while you say that prayer out loud. So come on, let's lift up our voice, lift up our hands, let the Lord hear you this morning. Let the devil know that you are serious by giving God thanks and praise. We bless and honor you, O Lord God. Thank you, O Lord God, for those that are saying this prayer on this morning here online, driving, in their living rooms, in their bedrooms. Thank you, O Lord God, for what you have done for us. You are growing us up into full maturity. Oh Lord God, thank you, oh Lord. Help us to sow the right seeds. Help us to put in the right fertilizer. Help us to water the ground correctly of our heart so that this fruit on the inside of us may grow into everlasting life. Thank you, O Lord God. Thank you, O Lord God. Speed up our progress. Speed up our progress. Speed up our progress. Thank you, O Lord God. We bless and honor you. Thank you, O Lord God, for doing these things in Jesus' mighty name, we have prayed. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you all.

Just as a quick note, for no matter where you are in the building, whether you're in here or in the overflow sanctuary, just remember that Jesus is in that room. So go ahead and stand. Go ahead and engage, you know, um, because we're all in this building together, and the Holy Spirit is there with you. The angels are with you. The Lord is there with you. Hallelujah. So that we can keep this engagement alive. Um, put up that, I don't know what announcement I have. So just put up whatever is there. Oh, if you want to get involved in any area, just go to, send an email to serve@lionheartchurch.org, but you can also go to the front of the website and right at the top it says, "Click here to serve," and it'll give you all the different areas that you can get involved in. As this thing increases, we have to have more people to to shore up the foundation from media to the parking lot to ushers to children's church, you name it. There's some other things there, cleaning crews, I mean, you name it. And so that we can, uh, there's nothing like serving God in his house. And and and serving is an act of love. You're doing it because you love God. You appreciate what he has done for you. But you're also serving people. When you serve people, particularly in the house of God or even in the, uh, world, hospitals, different things like that. Jesus said, "Where you did it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me." So we want to get involved with that. And I think that's the last. Is that it? Cool.

All right. How many glad you came to church today? Hallelujah. Excuse everything outside. You can see that they are pushing hard, pushing hard with getting this building done because we wanted to get everything done by the beginning of November. And so, uh, just keep on praying. We got things moving very, very fast. So, if you, Oh, wait a minute. Okay. So, if you're in the overflow, cool. If you're in the overflow room, um, you all be blessed. I saw a lot of you when you came in. I had to leave at about 9:30. So I saw a lot of you, but you are dismissed. But if you are in the overflow room and you are a first-time visitor, and you like my wife and I just to greet you just for a moment, you just stay put. But the rest of you, you can go ahead and be dismissed. You all be blessed. Will see you on Wednesday night or online. But if you're in that room and you're a first-time visitor, go ahead and stay put, um, as they exit out quickly. We'll let the first-time visitors go in just a moment. I got to do all of this crazy stuff. So, I had this, give me the thumbs up when they think it's okay for me to, it doesn't have to clear out completely, but just so they don't clash. I'm just prepping you all. Been getting these dreams, and the dreams are the raindrops of the Lord beginning to give us the direction for the future. It is so important that when you are running with God, to turn when he turns, to get off the exit when he gets off, to institute what he institutes. So I can do things just based on wisdom, but that wisdom may not be good enough. I have to get an accurate word from God. Lord, we are at three services. What do I do? Do I go to two on Saturday? Do I do it this way? I was reading the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit led me to read the book of Acts. And I kept on reading in the first six chapters that they were having church every day. And so I'm like, are you going to lead me to do something on a Monday or something on a Tuesday? I told you about the Hispanic church overseas. They have five services a day, six days a week. And so, and so it's very important. God, we, you have to learn how to maximize where you are first and make adjustments. Um, but then, um, at the right moment, the Holy Spirit will show you what to do. It'll usually be unorthodox. Many of times it'll require faith and sacrifice, but if you do it, it allows God to keep on doing what it is that he wants to do. And so, just be praying that I hear from God accurately and correctly on that. He'll make it very, very clear. But it will require discipline. And it might require, I don't know, it might require that you're dedicated to one particular day, and that is the only day that you go to church. That is the only service you go to until we do the big pause and all come together. I don't think he's going to do this. I even thought about this. See, this is my wisdom. Uh, let's see here. Maybe we can get people to come to a service based on the alphabet, their last name, and then we can get some to come on first and third, others to come on second and fourth. How many know that's that's a fiasco in the making right there. Now, you know where I need a word from God because I can think of some stuff, but, but it might implode. So, I think we're good enough here. So, if, hey, first-time visitor in here, go ahead and step out the aisle. Just go right to the back. Let's give them a hand. If you're a first-time visitor, just step out the aisle, head right to the back. They'll lead you to one of the other sanctuaries so that we can come and meet and greet you personally. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

How many of you know one wrong turn can get you lost for a long time? So you don't want to make a wrong turn because it looks like this is what we should do. Lord, where do we turn? And then he has you turn on a, a country dirt road, and then it opens up into. So I don't know where this is going, but we know it's going up. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All of these first-time visitors, man, it's crazy to me. I have never seen this before. I mean, know the Lord is getting ready to do a whole bunch of stuff in your life that you've never seen before. All of those scriptures in the Bible that said "suddenly, suddenly, suddenly."

All right, let's lift our hands. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you. Thank you, O Lord God, for today's service. Oh Lord, thank you that as we leave this place, we thank you that your grace, your peace, your favor goes before us like a sword and shield. Keep us together, O Lord God, until we come together again. Thank you for this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you all. Y'all have a wonderful day.