Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You, Lord God, for the songs of praise and of going up. We thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, for the testimonies, O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You, O God, for the program, Lord. We thank You, Lord God, for how You brought us through this week, Lord. Lord, we thank You, O God, for what You've done, what You've got to do, Lord God.
O Lord God, we know You're not done, Lord Jesus Christ. Now, use these lips of clay, Lord God. Use me for Your glory, Lord Jesus Christ. Let a word to be said, Lord God, to help someone, O God, to encourage them to deliver them, O Lord God.
To help them, O Lord God, inspire them to move on, Lord God, to the next level, Lord. Touch them and help them, Lord God. Touch your word, O God, to make Your word alive right now in the name of Jesus Christ. Let everyone say in the name of Jesus, Lord, we know, O God, there's nothing too hard for you, Lord.
O Lord Jesus Christ, we're depending on you, Lord God. That's why we're praying and asking you, Lord God, for things in our lives, Lord, and you're able to do those things, Lord. O Lord, remove the obstacles, O Lord God, to get in the way, Lord, of prayer, of getting the way of worship, getting the way of just fellowship with one another, remove those obstacles in the name of Jesus Christ. Free your people, O God, free them, Lord, hallelujah.
Fill souls with the Holy Ghost, O God, let your anointing fall, Lord. From the pulpit of the door, Lord, deliver somebody tonight with your word, Lord. Lord, we thank You for all things in Jesus' name. Give the Lord a praise and say hallelujah.
Clap your hands and say hallelujah. Say hallelujah. Give them the praise. And say hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah. Isn't the Lord good? The Lord is good. He's good.
You may be seated. Maybe seated. Give the Lord a high praise. Thank the Lord for allowing me to be in this building.
I thank the Lord for my space in the body of Christ. I thank the Lord for the day that He has given us. It's a blessed day. I thank the Lord that last week on Sunday, we were beside ourselves on how hot it was.
And on Monday night, we were putting a coat on because we were getting to cover ourselves from the rain. And the Lord just gave us some refreshing. But He gave us a refreshing in the spirit last Sunday. And that's much, much better than the weather.
I can take the heat all summer. I won't like it. But the Holy Ghost, that refreshing, that's what we need. But He followed up with some other kind of type of refreshing that the ground needed.
I thank the Lord for all the things that He's doing. I thank the Lord for Bishop Geddes and Mother Geddes and their absence. I thank the Lord for all the elders on the pulpit. I thank the Lord for all the deacons giving out our deacon turner, all the mothers giving honor to the visitors of our house this evening.
I thank the Lord for my family. I thank the wife, my two children. And I thank Rachel's down. So anyways, I thank the Lord for my family.
I ask you to please continue to pray for us. If you can't remember, just say Lord, bless them. Because we need prayer. We're not doing this on our own.
We go through what you go through. And sometimes I would say worse because of the enemy, the attack and all these things. But I do want to say one thing and give praise to God on behalf of something that the Lord is doing and the desire and it's something that a job related that the Lord has started and started as of last November and things are going up and there's a time of not hearing anything at all. And then I had a meeting in late May and then we had correspondence with this person and I'm looking to do a job.
He's saying unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He's saying unto him, feed my lambs. He's saying unto him again a second time. Simon, son of Jonas, loveest thou me.
He's saying unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He's saying unto him, feed my sheep. He's saying unto him a third time. Simon, son of Jonas, loveest thou me.
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, loveest thou me. And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus sayeth unto him, feed my sheep.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou was young, thou girdest thyself and walkest with thou withers. But when thou shall be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee with thou withers not. This bay he's signifying what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he's sayeth unto him, follow me.
Then Peter turning about seeeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following, which was also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee. Peter seeeth him, sayeth to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do? And Jesus sayeth unto him, if I will, that he teary, till I come. What is that to thee?
Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren that this disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not that unto him that he shall not die. But what if I will, that he teary, till I come.
What is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifies these things and wrote these things. And we know that his testimony is true. Touch your neighbor, turn to your neighbor and say, follow me.
I'm talking about following Jesus. Follow me. Turn to your other neighbor and say, follow me. We're talking about following Jesus, not following me, following Jesus.
That was the instruction that Jesus gave Peter. And that is the instruction that in the gospels it says, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. In the book of Lucas it says, take up your cross daily. But Jesus said, follow me.
And any time that Jesus was in interaction with somebody that wanted to be a disciple where he came across, he said, follow me. Well, Peter, in this text here, was a time when the Lord revealed himself the third time. And Peter and James and John and disciples, they were out fishing. And at this point they were out fishing.
They didn't catch anything. And the Lord basically told him to cast a net on the other side and the right side. And at that point they got a whole bunch of fish and that didn't break. And the disciple that Jesus loved, John, he told Peter, it's the Lord.
And Peter was naked and put his fish according. He dove in the water and went to shore about 100 yards away because he knew that was Jesus. And when they got up on the shore, Jesus had all the spread all out. He said, bring some of your fish.
He had some coals on there. He had some bread. And he had some fish. And they were just having a little bit of fellowship.
But after the food and the bread and the fish and all that, at that point in the 15th verse of the verse of scripture, they went for a walk after you. You want to go for a walk. And they went for a walk. And as they walked, the Lord had some questions for Peter because Peter was a kind of a person kind of like us that we need to hear it over and over again.
We need to be confirmed of what's going on. We need to know that we're confident and we're going to secure in the Lord. But the Lord really gave a charge to Peter. Peter, he's really concerned and he was distracted by other things, distracted by flesh and distracted by his own insecurities.
And this is something the Lord has laid on my heart because it goes into the workplace and it goes into the church. It goes into every one of us if we'll be honest. Let's just be honest with ourselves that we want to follow the Lord. But whenever we don't follow the Lord, we end up following something else or we end up stuck and we're not being what we're supposed to be.
And what's happening is our progress is being hindered because we're not following the Lord. So if you think in the context of the story here, he told Peter the third time he said, feed my sheep. And then he told Peter, said, very rarely I say to you when thou was young, thou girdest myself and walkest with thou wouldest. When thou shall be old thou shall stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry with thou wouldest not.
And he was telling us what death that Peter would glorify the Lord. But you know, Peter didn't say, you know, he didn't realize, he heard what Jesus said, but he couldn't get past the person that was following them. And instead of saying, Lord, how am I going to die? What's going to happen?
A natural person, if someone told you you were going to die for the Lord, you were going to lose your life, I would like to stop and just stop everything right now and explain to me what's going on. I'm going to die. What's going to happen to me? I know that you died and I know you rose again, but Peter couldn't see that.
And some of us can't really understand what's going on with the Word of God and how Lord's dealing with us. And so he said to him, he told Peter, he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he told Peter, follow me. But Peter turning about, see at this Bible whom Jesus loved following.
That's how I know that they were walking. That's why I know that after a while, Peter and Jesus had some communion with one another. But it irked Peter that John was following. And he wanted to know what shall this man do.
And as we become followers of Jesus Christ, if we are sincere and we are seeking the Lord to do his will, if we're honest, whether we be a preacher or a deacon, a mother, an usher, a department head, or a brother or sister, singer, musician, cook or cleaner, you name what you do in the church. By human nature, we compare ourselves to others, to what we are doing, what they are doing, are we making progress, are they making progress, how are they making progress? I should be doing that. I'm doing this.
And we have all this stuff going on in our heads. And we're looking at others of why come we're not doing this and that? And we have taken our eyes off Jesus and we're not following him anymore and what the Lord wants us to do. And it goes on because all of a sudden you start comparing yourself to this and that.
We are focusing too narrow and not understanding there is a work for everyone in the body of Christ. You notice I didn't say church, I didn't say the church building or the church congregation. I'm talking the body of Christ. We are not here by accident.
We are here and picked by the Lord. And the body of Christ, there's a whole bunch of you we can all do, but we have scoped it all down. There's only four or five things you can do and otherwise I just don't fit in. Well, that's a lie from Satan.
You're taking your eyes off Jesus and you're allowing the enemy and your flesh to compare yourself to other people. But Peter, after Jesus was asking, do you love me? Feed my sheep Jesus told him how his life would be required of himself. And he would suffer for Jesus and the glory of our Savior.
Instead of Peter to internalize what fate would befall him. And most people would fall out. He looked back at the disciple that Jesus loved and asked what about this man? How odd.
And yet so human. And so human and so human and carnal. What about the spiritual? This was always a bother to Peter in the body of Christ.
This was always a bother for the Peter because if you remember in Mark chapter 10, it was a verse 35, the disciples were overhearing James and John and saying, Lord, we want you to do something for us. And he said, what do you want us to do? What do you want for me? He said, I want to sit on one side of my brother.
He wants to sit on the other side of the throne. And Jesus said, you don't even know which, you don't even know. Can you be baptized with the baptism I have? Can you have what I have?
But to sit on my right side, left side of the throne, that's up to my father. But you know what happened? Is it disciples heard that? Did disciples heard that?
And you know what? It didn't just fall off. It didn't just go away. The disciples heard that.
Remember when James and John asked Jesus, what do you want? And the disciples heard and they were dysplese. Peter got distracted more than Nate Kate, more than Christ in the box, one refined the gospel, they said, God, you know what Kevinini says, God, what are you definition of the dictionary, they were hopping mad. So you know, we look at scripture, we kind of glossed and everyone was high-fiving each other, we were getting along and they did get along.
But you know, deep down, we all want to have value with Jesus, deep down we want to have something that we can offer the Lord, deep down we want to make progress. And we want something more in our spiritual life if we be honest, we want something more from the Lord. But we are allowing other people, we are allowing certain situations, we are allowing certain people being elevated or going this way and going that way wondering what's going on. Because you're taking your eyes off Jesus, you're not following Him, that's why you can't keep track of what's going on, you're not supposed to keep track.
We're supposed to walk and follow the Lord. If we do that, He'll make a way for us and He will find ourselves busy and doing what the Lord called us to do. So how we choose a deal with this will determine making progress in Jesus Christ. Settle it now, I will follow Jesus.
I will follow Jesus, turn your neighbor and say, follow Jesus. Turn your other neighbor, say, I'll follow Jesus. This was always a bother. And it's a bother to some of us, if we'd be honest, young and old, no one likes to be ignored, feeling like playing second fiddle or not being in the inner circle.
We'll keep living life because this will be fall many of us as we continue to leave to live, as the Lord comes. It's just life. It's not about the Lord having favorites and you're no better than anybody else. The Lord loves all of us, He died for us all.
So God so loved the world that He gave His only because He died for all of us. And we are in the body of Christ by His making. So there's no room in the church for envy or jealousy. Suspicious whether or not we are valued.
Does the Lord really love us? Are we in the body of Christ because we, because He loves us? Yes, we are in the body of Christ. We are in the body of Christ because He loves us, because He loves us.
We have value and we have purpose. So if someone told you, hey, you're gonna die for me, the first thing that we would wanna know is some facts when, how, why, and when, we would have a whole list. We would be, you know what, we would hold on to Jesus. He wouldn't have gone any further.
We would have just stayed right by Him. But you know, the Lord knows people. And when Jesus talked to Peter and Peter asked Jesus, He said, what about this man? Jesus basically told me, He said, mind your own business.
Stay in your own lane and follow me. That's what Jesus told Peter. He said, don't worry about that. This man comes and he's here till I come.
What is that to thee? Follow thou me. That's Jesus again saying, follow thou me. And the Lord is saying to all of us, follow thou me.
We need to follow the Lord. Don't follow your own intellect. Oh, don't follow your own guide. Follow the word of God.
Follow with the leading of the Spirit. The Lord wants to use every one of us. We are in the body of Christ to be used by Him. Jesus is telling us that we are too occupied with our brothers and sisters.
Too long it's been hindering our progress. And it's become a stumbling block to move forward. It affects our spirit, the small spirit, our personal spirit. It affects us, it binds us up.
Because we can't get past another person being blessed. We can't get past a person coming in to the Lord using them or elevating them. All they're doing is defiling with the Lord, said, follow me, follow me. Jesus said, follow me.
Take up your cross and follow me. The purpose of the church is us gathering together. But our marching orders and how we're used by the Lord comes by the Spirit of God. He sets things in motion.
He touches the hearts of people. And He says, follow me. So that's why we say, we emphasize prayer. That's why we emphasize fasting.
That's why we emphasize reading the word of God. That's why we emphasize fellowship. That's why we emphasize coming to the altar. That's why we emphasize if you sin, come down and get it right.
So that you can be used by the Lord so you can follow Him so you're not hindered, and tethered by sin and all jealousy and envy and all kinds of stuff that binds us as individuals and people of flesh. We're not supposed to walk after the flesh. But after the spirit, we have stopped following Jesus. We've allowed obstacles of where do I fit in or what would the Lord have me to do?
And I'm not making progress. And I'm worried and concerned about what others are doing or not doing. It doesn't pass to recognize me. Taking our eyes off Jesus.
But Jesus said, follow me. He said, follow me. Peter, who's so myopic that Jesus talked to Peter about something he never told John. And in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 13, it says, when Jesus came to the coast of Cesarite Philippi, he asked the disciples, saying, who do men say that the son of man am?
And they said, some say that our John the Baptist and some Elias and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he said unto them, though, whom say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, thou art.
He said, I answered him and said, blessed, art thou, Simon, barjona. For flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. He got a revelation that John didn't get. John, we loved him, get the revelation that Peter got.
And he went on to say, I say unto thee, thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
And whatsoever thou shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever thou shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Peter forgot with the commission that the Lord gave him. Peter got stuck and kept getting with the pettiness of wondering who was following, what's going on, what's he going to do? And he couldn't let it go out and happen.
And I say it had to happen, started with the request that he gave to Jesus. Well, you know, let my brother and I, let us sit on each side of that because they said he was much displeased. They were indignant of that. And I'm sure that they were all as one.
But deep down in our flesh, he wouldn't have turned to that. He's told he's telling him, feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Follow me.
I'm giving you something to do. I'm giving you a great responsibility. I'm not telling John to go over there and feed my sheep. He said over there, but he said, you know, he gave me nothing.
You know something, you're going to lose your life. You know, you walk wherever you want to walk. You get up in the morning, you go where you want to go. You put your hands out, you go where you want to go.
You get dressed where you want to go. But after a while, as you get older, you're not going to be able to get dressed anymore. You're not going to go where you want to go. You're not going to eat where you want to go.
And someone else is going to dress you because that's how you're going to glorify me, signify by what death that he's going to give to the Lord. And sometimes we're so stuck. We're so stuck as people. You know, how's the Lord going to use us?
What's going to happen? We're stuck with what other people are doing. We're resentful what other people are doing. We're wondering, how come this and how come that and this.
All of these kind of things going on. We would just follow the Lord and let the Lord just kind of make away for you. See if you follow the Lord and you are one to ones, now you are now in the body of Christ. The Lord has to work for everyone in the body of Christ.
We were handpicked for him. He has put gifts in each one of us. If we would tap into that, Lord, what you have for me, Lord, I want to follow you blindly. Lord, I want to follow you.
I don't know what tomorrow's going to be. I'm going to follow you. I'm going to do your will. I'm gonna go talk to that person.
I'm gonna go talk to that person. You said go talk to this person. I'm gonna talk to that person. You said read that.
You said this. Fastest day, I'm gonna follow you. As we go on to follow the Lord, he's gonna make it known to us. But he's put gifts in every one of us.
And to say that we don't know what to do, you're not seeking the Lord. You're not doing it. You're not following him. We need to follow the Lord.
We need to understand what the will of the Lord is for our life so that we won't be disgruntled. We won't know what our purpose is, that we won't understand what we have confusion, whether or not, well, I don't know if I wanna come to church or not. When we are truly following Jesus, we wanna follow the Lord. And when we get here, that's where we build upon our spiritual walk.
That's when we get in connection with the Holy Ghost. That's when we get to hear from the Lord. But our whole purpose is not to sit down in the congregation. Our whole purpose of Jesus Christ and our whole time is just to sit here on a Sunday.
There is more in Jesus Christ than just coming to church and sitting on a pew. This is supposed to happen because we're supposed to come together and be as a congregation, but we are supposed to do something seven days a week. One is we're supposed to be dedicated to him seven days a week. We're supposed to pray to him not just in church.
We're supposed to read, not just in church. We're supposed to have a relationship with him, not just in the church building. That's my point. This is correct.
But the Lord wants to take us a little bit further, understanding that you are in the body of Christ. By one spirit, we are in the body of Christ. There are many members in the body. There's only one body, but there are many members in the body.
Figure that out. And so you know what? And God took every one of these members of you and I, and he put him in the body as it pleased him. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
There's nothing for me to do. So what you're saying is that the Lord doesn't know what he's saying, that the Lord's words not true. You need to, we need to examine ourselves. What is my purpose, Lord?
Show me, Lord, I got stuck in the mud. I've gotten stuck in quagmire. I've gotten stuck of other people. I've gotten in their business.
And not really realizing that I have a work to do. And remember, in Isaiah chapter 61, it says, we are called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified in us, that he wants to be glorified. He's planting us in his building. So we can't say that, well, we're in his body by accident.
There's nothing for me to do. So I'll let someone else do what he wants to do, or the pastor has his favorites. That's false. And keep your eyes on Jesus and follow me.
That's my advice to you. Don't worry about others. The Lord will make a way for you. You are in the body of Christ for a purpose.
You don't know how long you're in the body of Christ. Some of you may be in the body of Christ. We see the whole ghost and die. Some of you may be in the body of Christ.
And the Lord will move you out of the body of Christ and bring you to another assembly. You don't know what life will be. Well, great. You don't know what the Lord will have leading.
You know, you look up here and you see these brethren up here. Well, there's someone missing. There's another one missing. And over time, the Lord has established churches.
They thought they were going to be here forever. But you know, you never know what the Lord's going to do. And the Lord's going to do the same thing for all of you. Well, we have to be used by that.
Philip had four daughters. And they were prophetesses, and they were virgins. And they were being used by the Lord. There's the mother that was a prophetess.
And in Luke chapter two. And she was a widow. And she was in a temple with fasting and praying. You know, that's what the Lord chose her to do.
But she got a revelation who Jesus was. She got to see the Christ. Let us not just stick and think of four things with what we're supposed to do, whether it be a preacher, or we're going to be a deacon, or we're going to be a mother, or whatever. The Lord has a work for every one of us to do.
It's a work in the church has to get done. That's by everybody. But there's deacons in the church in the book of Acts that work miracles. And someone worked a miracle, and that gave a mighty burn and fire of a word of God.
And he lost his life. He got stoned for the word he gave. But that word was good. That word was a whole chapter.
And it was a good word. And it's still there and recorded. And Stephen lost his life. But you know something?
So we're going to go through something down here. So we need to follow the Lord. And we want to be what we want to be. Holy women, unguaging women of giving Jesus the witness.
Holy women with a holy anointing can witness to people and pull them out of sin. Most people can't receive from another man, because some people are very, very hard. And I look at more of the more tough guys, which you know I heard a story of Sister Comrie going on the campus down in Yale witnessing the people and breaking down and crying. We understand, we understand.
We cannot sit on our testimony. We cannot negate what the Lord is doing for us and what he's going to do with us. It's not your testimony. The Lord will know your testimony and break that person down.
And they'll say, what must I do to be saved? We cannot minimize our quality. We cannot minimize our effect. We have in Jesus Christ.
Children can draw others to Jesus. Children with a holy ghost can draw others to Jesus. They can touch their teachers. They can move upon people.
They can pray for others. We have praying mothers. We have individuals, brothers and sisters in the church, that the Lord is going to use and is using. Don't minimize what you see and what you don't see, where I'm supposed to be, where you're not supposed to be.
You are where you're supposed to be. Now be where you're supposed to be and follow the Lord and seek the Lord for his goodness and mercy and see what the Lord will do. The Lord spoke to me in 1997 in a warehouse, a 10,000 foot square warehouse. I was in a deacon, I was in a preacher.
All I was doing was fasting and praying, fasting and praying, fasting and praying, fasting and praying. That's all I was doing. I was just a person in 1997. We were just in plainville.
But the Lord spoke to me and he said, tell them I hear prayer. All I was doing was following Jesus. All I was doing. So you can be anything that God wants you to be, but you have to seek the Lord.
You have to follow him and let the Lord use you. Let him use you in a way that'll blow your mind. Don't allow the enemy to tell you it's all up here. It's not all up here.
This is a work, but what the Lord has for the church is a different work. There are people that are bound, there are people that need real deliverance. They need to know that God is still delivering people, that it's not an accident that you are speaking to them. And this is the only hope for them.
There's programs, there's all kinds of stuff. But when you're baptized in Jesus name, your life will never be the same. When you receive the gift of the Holy Ocean, your life will never be the same. He will do something that you with your friends and your family won't recognize you.
When you are loose for those things that you can't stop and he does it for you, you have to give him the glory. We're not here by accident. We're not here by a fluke. The Lord didn't make a mistake.
He knows exactly what he's doing. Peter was distracted. He was distracted because he just didn't understand. You know what shall this man do?
Brother, I just gave you some information. I just told you what to do. I asked you if you love me three times, because you know Peter, I asked you three times before. You know, you said you'd die with me.
He said, listen before the cock crows, you're gonna deny me three times. And you know, Peter, he had to get this with himself, understand what's going on here. But I think by the Acts chapter 12, when Peter was between two chains and soldiers and he was in that prison. He realized he thought, you know what, this is it, this is it, James died by the sword and I'm next.
But the angel came in there. And when the angel loosed him and the chains fell off him, you know, that angel told him, follow me. And he followed him out of the first and second ward. And he went out that gate and Peter followed him.
Peter got it after awhile. He got it up in the roof time, three times with that sheet. Talk into these people, they're gentiles. I'm a Jew, I'm not talking to gentiles.
But Peter got it after awhile. And so some of us, we need to get it after awhile. We understand that the Lord keeps knocking on the door, knocking on the door, knocking on the door, and trying to tell you, I want to use you, I want to use you, I want to use you. Talk to this person, talk to God.
Get up and pray in the morning, Lord, I want to sleep more. No, get up and pray. The morning time is your time to pray. Get up and pray.
Night time is your time to pray. Get up and pray and do what you're supposed to do. Don't negate the time of pray with the Lord. The Lord wants to build you up in prayer.
The Lord wants to use you. Lord, I want to be used, but I don't want to do any of these things. Well, it has to, it begins one with surrender and dealing ourselves to the Lord. And the other thing is that we need to get our eyes off other people and what they're doing and what's going on and how the Lord's blessing them.
Otherwise we are no better than Peter. And I tell you what, I'd be kind of steamed in some way every time that was mentioned is John's the beloved. Well, what am I? You know, I'm Andrew, what am I?
What the John's the beloved? After awhile, it would kind of rub you the wrong way. And looking at this, I can understand it. But you know, there's a story, it's called, stay in your lane, it's called, it's about swimmers.
Swimmers that are athletic, swimmers that are out to be an Olympic swimmer. And they don't swim against the other swimmer. They swim against the clock. They swim against the time.
They don't swim against each other. They swim against the time. There's a time that a swimmer must make and make it back and forth and focus on the time. But what happens with a lot of swimmers, especially when it comes to competition of other people, all of a sudden they have them on camera because they're coaches taking pictures the whole time.
Why, they're swimming. And the coaches saying, you can be him if you focus on the clock. You stay in your lane and focus on the clock. And you know, some of us, we can't stay in our lane and we won't focus on the clock.
And the hours are ticking. We're wasting time. But see, what happens is that when all of a sudden, that swimmering, he's losing, he's losing a tenth of a second. He's losing, he's losing valuable seconds.
A sprinter's going the same thing right brother James. A sprinter has to, he's focusing on the time. Yes, he's in, the track is in a herd with other people, but there's a time that he wants to beat. There's a time that they hold up that valuable piece.
But they show these swimmers and all of a sudden, they see the person who's supposed to win, who's right on time. He won every time by the time. But because of the competition, because of people, they saw him, took his head up and look over. And that was where he lost the race.
And the coach said to him, do you know why you lost? He goes, I took my eyes. And that's the difference between a good swimmer and a great swimmer. A good swimmer races the athlete next to him.
A great swimmer only races the clock. And you know, we have a clock that we're dealing with right now. We get one chance and the clock keeps sticking. It just keeps on ticking.
It just keeps on ticking. What are you going to spend your time on? Other people, what they're doing, what progress they're making? Or are you going to focus on Jesus?
If we focus on the Lord for his direction in our lives, if we focus on Jesus in his word, and we focus on the leading of the spirit, he will bring you places to people and things and all kinds of things that you have never could do on your own. But if we focus on others, and we're stuck in this round hole and a square peg, and we're not supposed to be there, I want to play the guitar. Well, you can't play the guitar, but I want to play the guitar. Well, you can't play the guitar.
I understand the Lord understands. But the Lord said, I got to work for you. I have to work for you. And you know, it's not, we all think it's, we all think, pick your brain.
You all know what you think, what it is. But what you think it is, it's not. Let that register live in it. What you think the Lord wants you to do, you won't do because you think it's going to degrade you.
It's beneath you. But what you don't understand, the Lord's going to take you to a place so that you can get a better view and understand why the Lord has got you, where you are and that you can go to another direction. But you've got to stay in your lane. You've got to be focused on what the Lord has for you.
And you have to follow Jesus. You have to follow Jesus. Young people, you have to follow Jesus. As we go in with the young people, going into schools and things like that, they are focusing on everyone else at what peer pressure is.
And on our jobs, we're looking at other people and how they're being promoted and how they're getting developed. And this person now, but if we just focus on what we can focus on, if we focus on the Lord and do what we're supposed to do, the Lord will elevate us. We don't have to work to be recognized. The Lord will do it.
The Lord will do it. If we do it, it's going to come to God, but the Lord will do it. The things we do in the church, it's for the Lord's glory. Forget about who sees you.
After a while, if you're not there, we know you weren't there. If you were there, we know what got done. But after a while, you're just a worker in the church. They were just workers together.
We're all in the body of Christ. But I'm talking about a spiritual work that the Lord has started in this assembly. It's the body of Christ. And the body of Christ is not just in Bloomfield.
It's all around the world. He's going to send people here just to stop in, to get blessed, to get some truth, and then move on. Some people don't have the revelation of the baptism. They have the Holy Ghost, but they don't have the revelation.
They're going to come in and get the word of God. They're going to get the revelation. They're going to be like a palace, and they're going to move on. But in the building, in the church building, do we want to just stay stagnant?
Do we just not want to follow the Lord? Do we want to leave it up to somebody else? Or do we want to come in and be energized and follow the Lord? Do we want to give ourselves wholly and yield our lives to the Lord?
We have to get ourselves and our eyes off other people. We can't afford to take our eyes off what the Lord is doing. We can't allow ourselves to be encumbered with obstacles because this person, that person, the Lord didn't call this person that person for you to watch them. He didn't say, you know, I brought you to church so you can envy and have jealousy toward this one.
And that one, so that your progress can be impeded, so that you can be stymied. Do you hear me? I'm not screaming. I'm not stammering.
I'm speaking to you. Let the Lord use you. Your sister's in the back. You got baptized in Jesus' name.
That's the right thing. That's the best thing you can ever do. Because the things that you just did, you loofed. If you truly repent, you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And your life will be something that you will never be able to recognize what the Lord will do. He will make something wonderful out of what he can do. He can do anything. But you must give yourself to the Lord and leave that world alone.
And see what God will do. You heard the testimonies tonight. I didn't hear them, but I heard the applause. Does that just know that God's doing great things?
And if every one of us would just be honest, the Lord has done some great things for us. But we're looking at others. We're taking our eyes off Jesus. And we're saying, what about me?
The Lord already knows what he's doing. He planted us in the body of Christ as it pleased him. So when you do what you're supposed to do, and you're following him, then all of a sudden you're calling. That's what you're going to do.
That's your gift. As soon as you start doing what you're doing, you're going to do it. Do you know why the apostles got called by Jesus Christ? They didn't get called because they're under a palm tree.
They didn't get called because they're eating cashews and grapes. Peter cut someone's ear off. Peter was no nonsense. These brothers pulled up nets in a boat and had upper body strength that would cripple us.
There are no joke. They were workers. That's why the Lord called them. And he's calling us to be workers, not to work for other men's labor, but for the Lord's labor.
So he'd be glorified. But you know something, pay days coming. And he's going to bless you in this life. And he's going to bless you in the life that come.
So you don't have to worry about where the paycheck's coming from. I've cut the church. I've cut the lawn. And then I've put in my yard and I've got home and put my lawn.
And I pull into my yard, I think of Lord, to the other purpose I pull into my yard and my neighbor comes back on the tractor and cuts my lawn. I just thought I'd do it. It's no big deal. I've got to thank you Jesus.
So I'm going to put Jesus first. I'm going to do the things that are the Lord first. I'm going to do what He wants because I do what He wants. Everything in my life will fall into place.
My job will fall into place but my family will fall into place, my financial will fall into place, my children will fall into place if I put Jesus first. If we take our eyes off the Lord you can find yourself going sideways and wonder what's going on. We're taking our eyes off the Lord. There's no magic wand in the church.
Jesus said, follow me. He said, follow me. If he said that to Peter, he said it to all of us, we need to follow the Lord. Stand with me.
Think about what the Lord has done for you since you came into the church. Everyone, please stand. Think about the things that the Lord is doing and is going to do. Think about, go back in your memory bags of the things that the Lord has promised you, but they haven't come to pass because we've gotten distracted by obstacles and people and our ideas and our mind and flesh.
I never wanted to be a preacher. I never told someone I want to be a preacher. In my heart, I'll be honest with you. In my heart, I saw Bishop get his preach.
I said, I'd like to do that. Never told you when I got to laughing stock. And I'll tell you right now, I'm far from whatever our Bishop is. I look at him, I reverence him, I don't even know what that's all about.
But the bottom line is that if you yield yourself to the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart, but you have to yield. You have to let go of your own ideas of your mind and your flesh and you have to yield, and you have to follow him. And if it takes a long time, so be it. You know, Philip was out in a desert with a chariot.
Do you think he wanted to be out there? But as soon as he gave the word to the Ethiopian music, the Lord didn't, the Spirit just took him away. He got a ride better than Nassau. He got a ride better than any jet.
The Lord can still do what he does in the book of Acts. Follow the book of Acts. We are part of the Acts of the Apostles. We are a praying church.
Go by the Spirit. Be led by the Holy Ghost. If the Lord says, you know, why don't you go to prayer? Well, it's not my turn to pray.
I didn't raise my hand in Friday night. But the Lord said, why don't you go? Because maybe somebody do not stock in traffic. Come over here and light a fire.
Come over here with the Lord, light a fire on you. We don't have to be asked by the name. Follow the Lord. Follow the Lord.
We can chase windmills. We can chase all ideas. We can chase paranoia and all kinds of stuff. It happens in our jobs.
It happens in our homes. It happens all the time. Because we are not yielding to the Lord. Perfect love.
Casteth out what? Spirit of fear. But of power and of love and of sound mind. That's why we are not talking to trees.
That's why the enemy says, well, you can't go through this trial. Because you are going to lose it. You are not going to have this job. Because if it's not going to happen.
Lord said more control than you know. But if we follow him, if we follow him, the doors are going to be open. And the doors that we want shut up, they are going to shut. And the doors are going to open.
And no man can close those doors at the Lord open. And no one can open those doors to the Lord's closed. He's got your back. He's got your side.
He's got it all but we have to follow him. We have to do it. And we have to be honest with ourselves. With our own selves in prayer.
Saying, Lord, this stuff is in me. I don't know how I got to this point. But I just want to be used by you. But I just think I think if I could be that person, this person, then I can just be used by you better.
I can just do that. But that's not what the Lord wants for you. Give me something for you outside of the building. Outside of the building is where you're going to bless a whole bunch of people.
Versus you, bless two or three of your friends. Don't limit God. Don't put him in a shoebox. God's way is not narrow.
The body of Christ is not narrow. There are people being healed around the world if they were just surrender. There is the Holy Ghost that's being poured out to those that believe. The Holy Ghost is not given by the laying on the hands.
Although that will give the Holy Ghost. But it has to come with your heart. With the heart. With the heart confess.
With the heart. Believe it. Untor righteousness. You're going to receive the Holy Ghost from the heart.
That's when God gets in the heart. And when you're following the Lord, you want to go by the heart. Not by the preaching. Not by the berating of the preaching of the Word of God.
You want to go by the heart. We want to go by the movement of the Holy Ghost. Ignite your prayer life. Ask the Lord to ignite when he started in you.
Those things that he told you you're going to do in the church. Go back and ask him about it. He doesn't rignik. If he's waiting on you, will you follow him?
Will you go after him? Single mindedly. Single mindedly we go after him and not worry about our distractions. What we see we don't see.
And take our eyes off the clock of when it's going to happen. The Lord does it so quick that we don't know when it happened. We have to give him the praise when he does. Isn't the Lord good?
Don't we want to follow Jesus? Do we want to follow Jesus? Lift up your hands and say the Lord, Lord, I want to follow you. I want to follow you Lord.
I want to follow you Lord. You want to come to the altar tonight. Just come to the altar. If there's things that you want the Lord to change in your life.
Are there things that you want the Lord to do differently for you? But you just are stuck and you don't know how to get unstuck. Ask the Lord to help you. Ask the Lord to take your eyes off other people.
There is no room for jealousy and envy and all that stuff in the church. That's flesh. He has put gifts in the church. And all those things they breach the unity of the Spirit because we allowed ourselves to get in flesh.
Get in the way of what others are doing and not being engaged ourselves and allowing the Lord to use us to follow him. Thank you, Lord.