Transcription
Good morning. How's everyone doing?
Hey, for those of you that are new, um I'm bad about introducing myself. Hello. My name is Jake Weatherby. I get the wonderful honor and privilege to be the associate leader here. So. >> [sighs] >> We got a good word today. And I don't say that because I prepared it. I say it because I've been sitting on it and it's the word of the Lord.
Um it's funny in in the first gathering uh Joel and Caleb were prophetically pressing in to a part of my message and I was like, "Wow, that felt very affirming." But Caleb uh I don't know you're somewhere Caleb brought up Melchizedek. And what that's wild because I added a a verse and I was thinking to myself, "Where should I put this?" And um I think it needs to be the opening. So, this is not the key passage but but it it I think it's I'll wait. I'll wait to read it here a second.
I've been speaking, we have been speaking to the fact that we're in a a threshold season. Right? We're walking through a doorway that we cannot come back into. And there's something different on the other side of the doorway. And I believe that that is a word for the church as a whole. I believe it's a word for the resting place. Meaning that there is transformation that's taking place. Now, what's on the flip side of that? I think a lot of things, but I think this passage right here touches it in some way.
So, Caleb brought up Melchizedek and uh what he didn't know is I'd put Psalms 110:3-4. There it's not going to be on the screen cuz I just added it, but your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of your power. So, Paul's right there. What's on the flip side of this threshold is is the day of the Lord's power. But But what's the first key? Your people will what? Willingly offer themselves in the day of your power. Right? He goes on. In the day of your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array, out of the womb of the morning, to you will spring forth your young men, who are as dew. The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it. You are a priest forever after the manner and the order of Melchizedek.
So, just uh this is not what the sermon is about, but what what we're going to understand something. There was the Levitical priesthood that was established under the law. But when the Lord came, he fulfilled the law and he actually restored us back to something that predated the law. What was that? It was the order of Melchizedek, right? And just to put that simply, the difference between the Levitical law and the order of Melchizedek, one of the differences is that the Levitical priesthood had to be installed for the benefit of the people because they couldn't keep the covenant that they had with God. The Melchizedek uh uh priesthood is not about whether you can keep the law or not. It's about something that God made a new covenant with himself to invite you in to who he is as a priest. Jesus is our high priest, but you're a priest under the high priest. Why I'm making a distinction is that operating in your priestly function as an order under the order of Melchizedek is actually you ministering to the Father with Jesus. The Levitical priesthood was the the the the priests ministering on behalf of the people because they weren't good enough. The Melchizedek order is Jesus has made you good enough. He's imparted his life to you and you actually get the high privilege and honor to minister to Father God himself.
In fact, when the heavens and the earth are all wrapped up, do you know what's going to remain? A family who's in love with each other and the love that they have to love each other with is the love that the Father gave us. That we're just sharing out with each other and then it multiplies and then guess what? You get to pour it right back to Father. Father releases love to his family. It's multiplied greatly and then it comes right back to him.
So, this threshold of maturity, this threshold that we're entering over is coming out of infancy. All right, when you're an infant, you cry and you need milk. You need mom. You need dad. You need to nurture. There's nothing wrong with that. But there comes a point where little Timmy's 25 and he needs to get out of the house and go and do something, right? And what's happened is we've had 2,000 years of the church being filled with the Holy Spirit and the Lord is saying, "All right, little Timmy. It's time for you to get out of the house, okay?" Metaphorically speaking, obviously, we will always be in the house of the Lord, but but there is a higher ministry that the Lord is inviting us into and maturity is the absolute requirement.
The threshold that we're stepping over is what is what it's it's God the in this season, he is exposing the deficiencies of his church so that we might be honest with ourselves, we might assess ourselves on a personal and a corporate level. Okay? Really practically and say, "Wow, I'm really good. I'm strong there. And wow, we are really deficient here." And then when we see our deficiencies, it's not about striving to make ourselves look better. It's, "Hey Lord, thank you for showing me where I actually need you more. Would you help me by uh uh taking me through whatever process, taking your church through whatever process I have to go through, we have to go through so that we might become like you in a greater way?" And I I probably for those of you that are part of this house, you I probably sound like a sounding gong, but I I can't get off of it because that's what the Lord's doing.
And this isn't just about us. You know, I I thanked Tim Hires a moment ago, Tim and Pam. Because they raised Caleb. And I've actually been blessed by the Lord in Caleb's life. Did Tim and Pam think that they would be blessing others by raising their sons in righteous integrity? I don't know, maybe y'all did. But I can tell you that there's a greater abundance to their obedience in that season of their life, and I'm thankful for their yes to the Lord and how they raised their family. How many peo Yeah, amen. Amen. How many people are waiting for you to mature into a place that you're going to bless those around you in a way that you can't even think of. But if you remain immature, if we remain immature, what is being missed out on in the long-term outworkings of of of history, right? What like who, okay, all right. Let's get to the word, okay.
So, we're in this threshold and the Lord's wanting to mature us beyond narcissism. >> [laughter] >> Can I say it that way? Can I say it that way? Your dad has to tell you who you are when you're little, but at some point you have to become what he's speaking to you. And now you don't have to remind yourself, you just are what you are, right? You know you know, right? Like so but we've just for 2,000 years been like, "Yeah, I think I'm that." Let's just be that. Let's be like him because he made himself available. He made his life available, okay. All right, so our core emphasis today is it's actually two passages out of the Sermon on the Mount. I made a little joke, maybe you guys will laugh at it. If you take my message from like a month ago or whatever, which is it was on seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness and the rest of these things will be added to you, right? Okay, and then if you took Caleb's message 2 weeks ago, a wise man builds on the rock and and a foolish man builds on you know, the sand, right? If you took those two and they had a baby, that would be this word, okay? I'll keep working on it. I'll keep working on it, okay. All right. >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. I I that was for me. I just it's okay. Okay, all right.
So, our key passages are Matthew 6:33 and Matthew 7:24 through 27. And before I even read them, I just here's I want I want you to think of this is our the strand throughout this entire message. The core emphasis. Seeking first the kingdom strategically aligns you with heaven even in times of shaking. Okay? So So seeking first the kingdom strategically aligns you with heaven and keeps you Let me say it this way. Keeps you safe in a time of shaking. Keeps you stable. Okay?
So Matthew 6:33 amplified. But first and most importantly, seek, aim, and strive after his kingdom and his righteousness. His way of doing and being right, the attitude and character of God, and all these things will be given to you also. Matthew 7:23 24 through 27 amplified. So everyone who hears these words of mine and what? Acts on them. Caleb got into that. Will be like a wise man. And then in parentheses with the amplified a far-sided, practical, sensible man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods and the torrents came and the winds blew and slammed against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish, stupid man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods and torrents came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and what? And great and complete was its fall.
Okay? So let's get into this a little bit. We've We've got to understand something. The only stable thing in the earth is the word of the Lord. And In fact, like And just think about that. That's like power I said it flippantly. The only thing in reality that is stable forever and ever is the word of the Lord. Even to the fact it's his word that holds the universe together. If you've ever looked, there's they've did a scientific study it like on a cellular level there's this thing called laminin, right? It's a cross. It's literally like a cross. THERE'S A CROSS AT THE CORE OF YOUR BEING HOLDING YOU TOGETHER. THE WORD OF GOD is holding you together. Okay. So, wisdom would tell you I should put everything. Like if if, you know, this is a roulette table and the word of the LORD'S BLACK, PUT IT ON BLACK. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GO WRONG. OKAY, MAYBE I SHOULDN'T USE A gambling reference here, but hey. We did. Okay. All right. There you go. Now I got a joke out. Okay, I got a laugh out of you. All right.
So, So, let's talk about that a little bit, right? The stability of his word. Matthew 12 I mean, sorry, Hebrews 12:23-29 Amplified Classic. Uh you know what? Actually, let's go ahead and just read the the Passion and skip the the Amplified. And as members of the church of the firstborn, all of our names have been legally registered as citizens of heaven. And we have come before God who judges all and who lives among the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect in his eyes. And we have come to Jesus who established a new covenant with his blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Blood that continues to speak from heaven forgiveness, a better message than Abel's blood which cries from the earth justice. Make very sure that you never refuse to listen to him who speaks. For the God who spoke For God spoke on on earth from Sinai and the the is the same God who now speaks from heaven.
So, context, the writer of Hebrews is is writing to the the the Israelites, right? The Hebrews of that day. And God tried to speak corporately, he did speak corporately from the mountain to the people, but they weren't prepared and they couldn't handle what he was saying. Okay. Those who heard him speak his living word on earth found nowhere to hide. So, what chance is there for us to escape if we turn our backs on God and refuse to hear his warnings as he speaks from heaven? The earth was rocked at the sound of his voice from the mountain, but now he has promised once and for all, I will not only shake the systems of the world, but also the unseen powers in the heavenly realm. Now, this phrase once and for all clearly indicates the final removal of of things that are shaking. That is the old order. So, only what is unshakable will remain. Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakable kingdom, we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights his heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender filled with awe, for our God is a holy devouring fire.
So, so there's so much in that and I couldn't help but like I was reading one portion of it and I had to zoom it out. There's there's just so much joy. There's so much power, there's so much substance in that, but what I want to highlight to us is what is the only thing that can't be shaken? It's the kingdom. And and what we talked about a few weeks back is to understand kingdom, you must relationally be connected to the king. Because the king is the person who rules over a territory or a domain and how that king is will be reflected in his people and his land. If he's an evil and wicked king, his people will not prosper. They'll have a heavy burden on themselves. They'll die of disease and they'll they'll be weak, right? But if you have a healthy king, a good king, you have a king who empowers his people. He builds them up. His land prospers. So, who's the perfect king out there? It's Jesus, right? And and and some of this is going to sound like I'm repeating myself, but but if you really if you want to be aligned with heaven, if you want to be stable, if you want to know where you need to be right now. I mean, there cuz there's so much stuff happening every day. In fact, like like I have a high ability to process a lot of information at a very fast pace and even I am like, "Woo, man, like this is a crazy this year I think I've ever experienced in my life as far as global shifts, economic shifts. 10 years from now, we'll be laughing about what we were saying about AI, right? We'll be laughing about like like things are shifting, right? Economically, there's been the petrodollar, dollars that are tied to gasoline. That's changing. Industries are changing. How our lives operate from day to day change and it is only those who are going to be aligned with heaven that will actually be a blessing in the hour to come. Because there's an old system that was new at one point, but it's old now and we've got to walk through that threshold and we've got to do whatever the Lord shows us to grow and mature so that we can leave childish things behind us and mature into who we are as kings and priests in the order of Melchizedek. It's not just priests, it's kings and priests.
There are There are You know, God is shaking He shakes through government. He shakes through business. He shakes the heavenlies through his church. But I can tell you right now, the devil's been licking us, boy. And you say, "What? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus won the victory." Exactly. But our lack of enforcing his victory is why OnlyFans is a thing in our nation. Can I say that? Is that okay? OUR SONS AND OUR DAUGHTERS ARE BEING CAUGHT [screaming] UP IN THE EVIL BECAUSE OF LACK of our response with the victory that's been made available. I'm sorry. We've got to mature. Because my children are growing up and I don't even want it to be something that Junia would consider, that John David would consider touching. But how will they not How The only way to keep someone from being tempted by a counterfeit is to feed them the real deal. And And And listen, it's not just me and Rachel. It's all of us together. Like I said, Tim and Pam chose to trust the Lord and they raised their sons with integrity through hard times. And now all of us in this room are blessed because of that reality through Jordan's life, through Caleb's life, through Jamati, right? It So So who are we to sit here and remain immature? Who are we to build on the sand and call it the rock? I'm speaking corporately now, but we're going to take ownership on behalf of the church. We've built on the sand. And it looks really nice, and it looks really fun. You're like, "Wow, I've got a nice home in Sarasota." And then that hurricane comes and rips it to shreds. And now that nice house that you were envious of doesn't seem so great, does it? But the house that's inland that was built on a stable foundation, it's remained. What my house is on the coast, right? I'm in Tarpon Springs. It's been here since the '50s. Rachel and I feel very safe. My house is a tank, man. In fact, we quit going other places cuz we were like, "Our house is probably safer than even Georgia." Like, That's the Lord, right? So, we got to mature and and we got to we got to walk with with Jesus.
Okay, so All right, so how do we do that? Um and I'm just going to keep this really basic. How do we How do you stay in alignment with the kingdom? How do you How do you seek out the kingdom, right? It's uh Okay, we're good. We're good on time. John 10:25-28, we're going to read quick. Jesus answered them, "I have told you so." So, there's a crowd of people that are saying, "Are you really the Messiah?" And he This is his response, right? After he's been doing all these miracles, he's been doing all this crazy stuff. It was pretty obvious that he's the Messiah, right? Jesus answered them, "I have told you so, yet you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name testify concerning me. They are my credentials and the evidence declaring who I am, but you do not believe me. So, you do not trust and follow me because you are not my sheep."
It's so funny. Let's just stop right there for a second. It's so funny how all of us are sheep and how the church claims to be sheep, but we can identify more with the first portion of this passage than we can the second. And that's something that is an issue that the Lord is rectifying in this hour. And he's rectifying it because he's saying, "Okay, this has been fun. We've been camped out. I I've been really patient. I love you guys. I'm still going to be patient." He's patient, right? But there comes a point where he's like, "Okay, we're going to go through. We're going to go into the promised land. And either you're going to be a generation that gets left in the wilderness and you die a slow death walking to nowhere. Or you're going to be someone who's like, "What was that passage I read in the beginning?" It says, "Spring springing forth from the dawn like young men." Do you know who were the only people that entered into the promised land? Everyone who was 20 and under. Now, Caleb and Joshua, right? Okay. Praise God. I'm over 20 now. Okay, it's not chronological. I'm not speaking to that chronological I'm speaking to it spiritually right now. There are those who will be like children who trust the Lord, who believe in when he speaks. And there are those who are going to fight him all along the way. And at some point, he's been super gracious. And he's like, "Listen, I can't keep doing this. You want to be a kid like that? Like that's the wrong child-likeness. I need the right child-likeness. And if you want to keep carrying on in the wrong child-likeness, you will stay here. I don't think it's a salvation thing, but it's you're not going to be a part of what he does next. And you possibly you possibly could be like the the five virgins that weren't prepared. There's a lot of people that equate that parable to the church. There's a portion of the church that's ready for his coming. There's a portion of the church that isn't. Not a salvation thing, but there is a greater measure of his power. There's a day of his power that is is available. It's available now. But will you willfully surrender your life that you may be a PART OF HIS POWER, THAT YOU MIGHT BE A CONDUIT, a vehicle of his radical power showing up in every facet of your life. I got a good story. I don't have time for it, but I got another story, okay? >> [snorts] >> Let me say one last thing to this. I believe this is a house that's a friend to God. But you need to understand there's a definition to friendship. There's a definition to God's friendship, okay? Here's Here's that definition. You find it right here. >> [sighs] >> You find it right here in the verse that I'm going to read to you as soon as I find it. Okay, let me finish that. The sheep I stopped halfway, sorry. This is back to John 10:25-28. The sheep that are my own hear my voice and listen to me. I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they will never ever by any means perish and no one will ever snatch them out of my hand.
So, if you're his sheep, then you have the ability to hear his voice. If you don't feel confident in that, guess what? It's this simple. Lord, teach me to be confident in hearing your voice that I may respond to you. It's that simple, I promise. Some of you are really good at it. Some of you are new to it. It doesn't matter where you are. Just ask Lord, I'm your sheep, teach me to hear your voice. Now, here's the second thing. Here's God's definition of friendship. No one has greater love nor stronger commitment than to lay down his own life for his friends. You are my friends if you keep doing what I command you. Ooh. What did he say? You are my friends if you keep on Not just do it once, if you keep on doing what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But, I have called you my friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from my father. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting. So, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, as my representative, he may give to you.
So, I'll leave you with this. Leave you with a short story. And a and a and and a question for you to to process. Do you feel confident that you've continued to do what he's called you to? And if you don't, I'm not beating you up. Go to go before the Lord and say, "Hey, if there's something I've left along the road that you asked me to do, if it's possible I could go back to that, would you give me grace to do that, Lord, and empower me to be obedient? Because I I want to be your friend, and I want to move on to into maturity. I I want to I want to I want to adorn myself with the righteous acts of the saints. You know, that's that's our that's our wedding clothes, Revelation 19. You can go read it. It's the righteous acts of the saints. What are those righteous acts that you're doing right now? And if you can't point at your life and and like clearly state them, that's okay. I'm not beating you up, but maybe it's time to grow, because the Lord has some righteous acts he wants you to walk in. And if you want to laugh, you know, I'll say it like this, "Dude, THE LORD HAS SOME RIGHTEOUS ACTS FOR YOU TO WALK IN, OKAY? They're All right. Hey, OKAY, WE'RE GETTING THERE. WE'RE GETTING THERE." I'll end with that. All right, I love you all. >> [laughter] >> Let's say thank you to Pastor Jake. Oh my goodness. I just have a question. Was that an impersonation attempt? Bro, was that like your attempt, bro? Like okay. All right. I can't do the accent, so it's fine. >> [laughter] >> Hallelujah. Yeah, man. I don't even know how to transition the room after that, but hallelujah. Now, the question is so important that >> [music] >> is there something, Lord, that you had me, your assignment you had for me, that I didn't fulfill? Would you give me grace to go back and fulfill it? That's a massive [music] question we need to sit with because it's about obeying and some of us are wanting a new word from the Lord and he's like, "You got I'm going to wait for you to obey the last one first." Like that happens all the time. Amen. That's been my experience. I think it's important that we fulfill the assignment. If it's still [music] able to be fulfilled, we need to do it. Amen. And some things, you know, we miss the window. Sometimes we miss the opportunity to actually walk in what God calls us to walk in. And that is what it is, but it's not every time. Sometimes there's still a window. So, yeah, I believe that's a prophetic word for some in here.
So, let's stand together. And we're going to have our prayer team come forward. And I just want to encourage you that hearing the word of the Lord it should actually become the most natural thing in your [music] life. And, you know, when I was growing up, we didn't have language for it cuz I was in a tradition that didn't believe in the, you know, [music] the Holy Spirit speaking, you know, to us. That would be tantamount to adding to scripture in some ways, things like that. So, let's be clear and we are on live stream. So, we don't believe that the scripture can be added to, you know, the canon is closed, all that. There's not special revelation today, but God is still speaking today. Amen. And he's speaking to you probably more than you think. But growing up, we were told it's like your conscience. Like when you're like, "Ooh, I should." That's probably [music] God. You know, especially when it matches what the Bible says. So, I think there's [music] truth to that. You know what I mean? And in that way, you can just start. You know what I mean? It doesn't have to be like the, you know, the heavens opening and God sticking his head out and giving you instructions for the next 10 years of your life. You know, it usually is not like that. I've never had that experience. It's more that whisper. Like you just know you should do something. Or you should know [music] you should talk to somebody. Or you should just stop and be present. Amen? But all of us need to hear and obey. Hear and obey. And that I do agree. I agree that this the seasons are changing. If you If you pay any attention, like to the earth. If you pay any attention, you know, there's there is shaking going on. I mean, historically speaking, if you look at the cycles of the earth, all the Christian sociologists, all these guys are saying it like, "We're in that 500-year plus window where like the entire earth flips. Like new regimes come out of, you know, and >> [music] >> like it's actually a pseudo miracle that even our nation is a still a superpower. According to the cycle of the earth, we're like breaking that cycle. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Like it it's actually a uh measurably miraculous in that way. And it may change. It may change in our lifetime. And [music] are we going to have an internal security before the Lord >> [music] >> that keeps us grounded and ready as a port in the storm? Or are we going to be tossed to and fro by the waves like the rest of them? Jesus promised, "In [music] this world, you will have tribulation." We're not being doomsayers. I don't think anybody here is being a doomsayer, right? "In this world, you will have tribulation." Jesus promised. You remember that one? >> [music] >> That's one of the promises of God. Amen? We want all the promises of God except for that one. >> [music] >> He promised, right? It says, "But take heart, I've overcome the world." How do we overcome? We're more than overcomers because of him, right? But [music] that means we're following him. That means we're doing what he said. So, if you're like, "I don't know what the word of the Lord over my life is." Slow [snorts] down till you know. Like, I would say, here's my counsel, do next to nothing until you know. Like, do the bare minimum of what you have to do until you know you're doing what the Lord said to do. And if you don't know what he's saying, just keep doing what you're doing and be faithful until you know what he's saying. But when you hear it, you best get after it, boy.
I've been I was talking to my new friends, uh, Jake's That's Jake's Someone of his Yeah, they're his spiritual parents. They're from Where are you from again? I'm sorry. From Tennessee. We have to Our guest from Tennessee. They helped raise Jake in the faith, and we're just thankful for what you've done. Just like you were talking about my parents, we're thankful for you cuz we're all blessed because of you and what you've done with Jake. >> [music] >> I was talking to them about how this church came about, and I was like, "Yeah, this was begrudging obedience. I did not want to do this. I tried to kill it. I tried to make people never come back just by being obnoxious." And it did the opposite. It was like a boomerang. It was like And it was the word of the Lord coming forth. And [music] what I didn't say earlier is like I what I'm learning to do and grow into now is radical quick obedience, not begrudging obedience, not obeying later because I feel like, "Oh, I better do it." I just want to obey quickly. Amen? And when I do that, man, there's life. There's fruit. There's There's just joy abounding. Amen? Wow. I know you probably you might feel like you got seven sermons today cuz you did and Hallelujah. [music] Apparently, we needed that, but let's just go to the Lord in prayer. And can you just by faith say this to me? Yes, Lord. Whatever you say. You can say that before you know what he's saying. It's good. Yes, Lord. >> [music] >> Whatever you say. I'm saying now I will say yes. I'm saying yes now to whatever you say and I'll wait on your word. Help us, Lord, to have courage in the day of your speaking. Help us to have [music] boldness to step in and do it and obey your voice. And Lord, if there's anyone here who they can't say in their heart of hearts that he's my shepherd, I'm his sheep, I'm part of the family [music] of God. If they can't say that, Lord, I pray that your spirit would draw them to this to the front here when I say amen. And if you're here, all you have to do is come down when I say amen to this team and say I want to know the Lord. I want to know the Lord and they'll help introduce you to Jesus. If you're here and you need prayer for anything, please take advantage of that as well. But this team has faith for everyone and so [music] Father, I just ask right now that your spirit would compel us and thrust us out. Come on, somebody. Would ekballo us into the harvest field. Send us. Come on, here I am, send me. Say send me, Lord. Send me into my workplace. Send me into my family. Send me again. Come on, you should be sent every Sunday. Send me again into my assignment as an ambassador of hope, an ambassador of [music] love, as someone who carries your presence and your person. Send me, Lord. Show me your heart. Come on. Show me what you love. Show me what you hate. Even show me what's in my life that you hate, Lord. Come on, this is a bold prayer. Pray it. Show me what's in [music] my life that you you want out. Show me what you love and show me what you hate. Give me eyes to see the hurting around me. Come on. I'm praying this so you would pray with me. Give me eyes to see those who are in pain, those who are broken, those who need your help, and let me be [music] part of the solution under your guidance. God, help us to care for one another. Help me to receive care and give care on the family in the family and in the on the journey of faith. Help me to [music] give care and receive care and as always, Lord, we say your word is truth. Your word is truth. Come on, say that. Your word is truth. [music] Lead us in the light of your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.