Find, Fulfill & Finish Your Course - 19 November, 2017

[Music] [Music] all right well this morning we want to get right into the Word of God and this is something that has been you know some things you get God just dumps and says do this now other times he has things bubble up and you kind of now and he says no you're not done yet hang on I got more and he puts it together and it takes a bit of time and starts to bubble up and this is one of the things that it's played to because he actually this is one of the things that has been that way it's been kind of bubbling and you never know what's gonna finish it off you never know when he's gonna say okay it's done now you can present it now you can bring it out but it was funny because I mentioned during the first service or during the first session that we talked today even with the doctor Summerall when I was with him and and then I have all of his material here also on DVD and so there's times I'll just watch it sometimes it's just for memory sake to remind myself of him and you know kind of wish he was still around here so that we could talk and I could share some of the things that God's doing and let him know and I believe he does know that you know the time he spent on me wasn't wasted they were actually doing something with it but last night even if it was all this was coming together and I knew I was going to bring this out but then I just grabbed one of his DVDs and put it in and started watching it and it was funny because how it all fit and it wasn't what he was saying it was him and I started looking and and I heard what he was saying I've heard it before but it just really hit me as I was watching him him as a minister and you'll see what I'm talking about in just a minute you can turn to John chapter 14 now give you a couple of verses on John chapter 14 starting in verse 12 and this morning what I'm actually talking about and really what I what I heard when I first started getting this was how to find fulfill and finish your course so it be how to find your course how to fulfill your course and how to finish your and so we want to talk about finding fulfilling and finishing your course you know any one of those is not enough and so we have to look at all three so we're gonna look at that in John chapter 14 verse 12 it says verily verily Jesus speaking of course I say unto you he that believes on me notice he not they he individually this is every individual person that believes on Jesus he that believes on me though works that I do shall he do also not might shall that shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do he the individual not as a group because I go into my father everywhere I go I'm talking with people what always stands out is that everybody wants to do the greater works and yet 99% of them that I talk to aren't even doing the same works but they want to jump right over the same works and get to do in the greater works and you have to realize that the same works those are the that is the preparation to be able to do the greater works so there's always a preparation time preparation time is never wasted time most people don't like preparation time they want to hurt them get to the fulfillment they want it to this is the way it should be but it usually it's the preparation time that gives you the strength of spirit the strength of character the strength of will in some cases to be able to carry what God has given you and what he plans for you and what he wants to take you into now aren't we very clear on this ok there are there's different views on this topic as there is with almost everything else and dang it just lost all the authority ahead anyway and so the authority comes from here thank God not from here Amen so no but what a lot of people look at is they say okay God has given you a dream and he's going to help you fulfill your dream and whatever that dream is and they always talk about whatever dream God has put in your heart then he will bring it to pass okay you have to realize I agree 100% of that statement whatever dream God has put in your heart he will bring to pass that does not necessarily mean that the dream in your heart God is going to bring to pass because it doesn't mean that the dream you have in your heart is necessarily from God see the dream he brings to pass is the dream from him so most people even in the church today though we live in a new covenant time most people still operate from an Old Covenant mindset and so they're still thinking Old Covenant and so what what and especially now in America we have reached this place where the church is a place where people come to to get encouragement to fulfill their American dream that is not the gospel the gospel is not the American dream the American Dream is not the gospel okay the gospel should be the American dream in other words every American should be dreaming about the gospel okay but the American Dream is not the gospel now God wants us to prosper he wants us to be in health there's no doubt about that third john ii tells us that the scriptures all through the scripture tells us that god wants us to be healthy he wants us to be strong in him he wants us to accomplish his will for our life and he wants our will to be in alignment with his will he wants us to want what he wants for us may then community agree with that now but many times people have the idea of whatever dream you have god if you come to Jesus God is responsible to make your dream come to pass he is not right he has a dream I will tell you this his dream for you is so much better than your dream for you unless of course you have adopted his dream now his dream is real simple his dream is that you be conformed to the image of Christ that you be made like Christ in every way feeds 4/15 tells us that you are become like him in character in thought and word indeed in power in every aspect that you should be identical to Jesus in every ways inside and out not just inside but also in the outside that we should be living like him talking like him thinking like him and and yet most people still have the idea of that an Old Covenant mindset you know his ways are above our ways his thoughts are beyond our not our thoughts and all this and yet the New Testament tells us that now we have the mind of Christ so his thoughts are to be our thoughts and we are to repent to turn around to change our mind to think in accordance with the way God thinks we should think about sin the way God thinks about sin we should think about healing the way God thinks about healing we were to think about prosperity the way God thinks about prosperity right see God doesn't think prosperity in a term of Pilate up and then sit on top of it and guard it and just so you have a lot God thinks prosperity in the terms of whatever he pours into you pour out so because you now have the freedom that you can trust God that he'll take care of you so that you know whatever he gives you you can pour out into others lives and so you know if you think prosperity you ought to be thinking in terms of oh great I got that new race now I can support that missionary great I got this bonus now can help build that church in such-and-such place see that's the way we ought to be thinking but in the American Dream Church the idea is I want to be this I want to be that and God is going to help me be this or that and that is not in the Bible now I understand God will help you in your job but God's God does not sit in the heavens and try and he's not sitting there trying to figure out or trying to put together everything and that comes together so that you get voted Employee of the Month all right that's not his his purpose is not and to cause you to excel in something that will glorify only you he calls you to excel in what will glorify him and this is part of the lost gospel that the the part that's lost is many times true repentance of a true turning to God of a true dying to self and laying down your life so that you can take on his life and that's what Jesus actually said he said that he that saves his life keeps his life will lose it but if you lose your life from my sake and the gospel's then yeah he said then you will have life in eternity and you'll be blessed here too but the point is that your now your life is geared toward what he wants done for the betterment of the universe not just for you what God does never helps just one person well if he may bless you with a healing that healing in just for you it's so you can testify so you can give someone else faith so they they can trust him and they can be healing everything he gives you is to be used for somebody else right and so maybe you've heard the story I don't call it wouldn't think it necessarily true but how can I say this they that person yes and as the story goes a person was taken to hell and saw everybody sitting at this table that had all the food on it and yet all the head was he's super long Forks and they were poking the food but they couldn't eat with it and it was hell because they could never eat and they could never they could never eat the food it was the help part was the food is all in front of them and it's more than they could imagine but they couldn't eat it and then they were taken from Hell to heaven and when I got to heaven it was exactly the same picture all the food you could imagine all the you know all this stuff at the long Forks and a whole bit but in heaven instead of the people fighting trying to feed themselves they fed each other and as they fed each other the forks would reach across the table to feed each other so it shows that it worked again as better of course in looking at yourself so the key is what are you doing to to better the universe what are you doing to better your life not just your life but your neighbors life what are you doing to actually show them God lives in you or he just an American gospel Christian well I'm in this as long as God helps me and blesses me and if he doesn't bless me and help me doesn't heal me whenever I think he should then you know to heck with this I'll just go you know be a Buddhist or I'll go you know just being atheist or whatever it is well if you think that way you're already that I can tell you right now right because we're we're here for him now the good thing is and he isn't understand this when I say he's not here for us I don't mean he's not here to help he is but he does not exist so that we can get what we want we exist to bring him glory amen now so remember find your course fulfill your course finish your course now everyone's to do the greater works but they hadn't done the same works look at this in Jeremiah 29:11 I know it's an Old Testament verse it's a good verse matter of fact you can't really see it up here but it's right up here behind me - but Jeremiah 29:11 says for I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord thoughts of peace not of evil to give you an expected end now what this tells us is this God has a plan right first off he says I know the plans I have you now notice and and I want you realize this God's plan for you see people have this idea that God has you know there's 7 billion people on the earth and it God has 7 billion different plans he does it God has one plan for 7 billion people and that plan is that we grow up to look like Jesus and that would be conformed the image of Jesus now God also knows where you are he knows where you are in your life you knows where you are in your in your in your faith life and your life toward Christ and your understanding and he knows what job you have but I want you to understand this and I just want to give you a different view maybe today you take a person that's going through Medical School they they most the times many times they usually have to have another job while they go to medical school now when they which do you think would be a likely scenario when they go to medical school do you think they sit around and talk about their job as a grocery clerk do you think they talk about oh yeah this is madness I can't can't wait to get out of school today and go to the my grocery job man that's just you know I just really can't wait or do you think that when they're on their grocery clerk job they're saying man I'm going to medical school pool man it's tough but man you know I can already see the good I'll be able to do and I can't wait to get out of school so I actually do what I'm doing do you think that's more likely than the first scenario now if a person is going through Medical School you know that's not maybe not the best analogy always scuse me but I want you to realize it what you're into you talk about if you're into something you're going to talk about it and most people are not into their job most of them work to provide a living housing food whatever it is you're providing for provide for your family and that's honorable the Bible talks about that it's a good thing you're supposed to take care of your family you're supposed to do these things but most people look at their job as many ways of who they are and they say oh I'm this well I didn't ask you and if I say well you know well what do you do or who are you but if I said who are you mostly well you know I'm a this I've got a degree in this okay that that's really not who you are that's what you do now I will agree what you do repeatedly you are okay so I understand the differences here but I want you to realize that the way the Bible lays out the Christian life our what we're into should be God that should be what we talk about we should be into Jesus we should be into all that the Bible talks about that he has for us and that who we are in him we are to be talking about what all the Scriptures that of who we are in Christ we're to be talking about that because that's that's what we ought to be into there to be foremost in our mind even when we're at our job that art is still we ought to be doing our job through the filter through the lens of being a child of God a son or daughter of God or whatever it is because if you don't think that way then when a when a situation arises that needs a child of God to manifest you won't manifest that that makes sense to you in other words you're you're at your job somebody drops over of a heart attack okay now you're either gonna act like a child of God are you gonna act like the world one of the two you can't act like both right you're either gonna you know jump on the phone call 9-1-1 or you're gonna go over to them and begin to command life that's what you're gonna do you're gonna come in healing that's what a son or daughter of God does right they don't jump on the phone and call 9-1-1 matter of fact I've been having the prayer line we have an emergency prayer line and on it in the beginning I would answer and I say hello this crib Lake how can I help you and then people heard of me and all of a sudden now it ceased being an emergency prayer and almost and it's you know a theological question there's some discussion and they want to talk for fifteen minutes and while that's going on the phones beeping somebody else called him with an emergency and I say okay well what was your emergency well then I change that instead tell them Who I am when I answer I just say when I answer I literally say loop 9-1-1 what's your emergency because Luke 911 says that He healed all that had need of healing and so I automatically direct him back to that and it kind of it's a it's a greeting that I can say quickly and get him right into the prayer before I they start asking oh is this brother curry so anyway some people are more concerned sometimes and talking with me than they are about their sickness or what it was they called about as okay if you're more interested I'm just talking yeah obviously that's what an emergency right so let's get you back to the emergency but whenever whenever I answer those calls I am functioning as a son of God I'm not functioning as a person who's going to go beg God to try to touch this person I am God's answer in that case do you get that and you understand what I'm saying there I'm there they're calling I'm at the point of need so now I have to be ready to meet that need just as a policeman or a fireman or whatever it is they have to be ready to meet the emergency Christians should be living in a way that they are ready to meet the emergency of any person around them that's our purpose here to be salt to be light right not to be a referral service well go go to this place you can get help go there they can get you off drugs or right no we can get you off drugs why how a command we can come in the devil to get off your back we can command your body to begin to function correctly we command we can command the physiological psychological addictions to cease and and you can be freed right then we've we've seen it over over well now so here he says he has plans I know the thoughts that I think toward you the plans and the thoughts a piece not of evil to give you an expected in there isn't expected in his expected in is not your job you got that your expected end is his goal for you which is to be conformed to the image of Christ that means in every area fruit power gifts character nature attitude all that right so he is constantly working on all of us as we let him work with us now so the first thing is you have to find your course no no with me and I want to draw these out as we go on but we're going to build from the ground up so first off you have to realize do you have a special course because before you can concentrate on your special course first we have to understand and define your general course and your general course and probably should have had Mariam come up and do this so we did last time but let's say we'll start here and we're just gonna go across and get good pins there we go okay so this would be the foundation the foundation of course is you getting born again right that's the first thing first thing you need to get born again so we'll just put born again there now in this I don't give you some names here and some different things these are names by which people and these is also the process where most people see themselves at any given time first off it might be as a Christian well I got born again now I'm a Christian right it might be there now they call you brothers to know you start to identify yourself as okay well I'm I'm a Christian brother and so you start to identify with a group or with a particular group of people Christians okay then next I think you might find out well I'm a believer so now you've got Christian you got Christian you got brother and you got believer now so let's go with each one now originally I did it like this here but I'm not going to do that I'm gonna do it this way okay so in other words we're not gonna make each one build up we are just building a foundation all the way across you got that it's all across so here you'd have like a Christian then you have maybe brother right and then we would go on up and we're going to have a but you know several of them here I'm just going across but now look at the next one the next we have listed is as a believer we have Christian than a brother than a believer then you might have and and here's where it gets depending on your walk and who you hang around you might know that you're called to be a saint right so we've got a Christian a brother mother would put the others on here - believer and then you might see yourself as a saint most people if I ask you what you are most people not gonna throw I'm a saint okay most people are never going to say that and they're not going to never going to MIT that because they think a saint as a person who has achieved total perfection in every area that's not what it is okay a saint is short for a sanctified one which means one who is consecrated from something to something right so every believer is a saint right now after that and again this these on up they don't have to be in the exact same order it's just general ideas let's say the next one maybe you've heard about being and going up again here let's say you've heard about being a witness you know and now you have to realize witnessing is something you can do but being a witness is who you are right your life is the witness whether you ever open your mouth or not remember that okay now after that I'm depending on who you hang around with you might know that you are called according to the Bible to be a disciple now be honest with you that sure then right down here at the very beginning okay that should have been matter of fact you should have known this before you even accepted Jesus because that's what accepting Jesus is you become a disciple which means that you're there's gonna be a life change that means that everything's gonna be different and now he is your Lord you are his disciple he commands you obey end of story right that's what a disciple is a disciple is one who is learning growing in the knowledge of Christ but not just learning in knowledge but actually obeying and doing the will of God right who is my brother and sister but those they that are do what do the will of God right he even sitting here know Mary is a big deal in a lot of circles bigger in some circles and others but at the same time Jesus when referring to her even said who is my mother who in other words saying nothing's necessarily special about her but it's the ones that do the will of God now admitted they said you know blessed are you because you bore Jesus and then we understand that we honor her for that I mean it took a lot of guts for a young girl at that time probably around the age of 1415 mm maybe 16 to actually agree with the angel that came to her and say okay you know what you said that's okay that will do that and then turn and tell her husband-to-be guess what I got good news I'm pregnant wait what how did this happen well the angel yeah it was the angel the milkman is that her what we're talking about there's a two different kind of is it no see she had to convince him and tell him what was going on and that took a lot of guts that meant that God did look for a special young lady that he knew had the character and the strength to carry what he was birthing inside of her amen so we don't we're not in any way denigrating you know what Mary did all right but we have to realize too that Jesus himself said who is my mother my brother my sister but those that do the will of God and so it's doing the will of God is what counts now notice also after that after being a disciple and please remember this is not stages for you to go through you understand these are not stages and we're not working up to a pinnacle okay you got there when you got in you're at the pinnacle when you got in but these are all supposed to be definitions or descriptions of who you are and how you live but now there's also and pending on who you hang around then there would be another one I'll go one I'm one or two more here this one which would be knowing yourself as a son or daughter of God right that would be another one now most people never get that far they never grow and again I'm not saying that this is a necessarily has to be a growth this is a pattern most people follow but again it doesn't have to be this and then finally now we know that this person and it should be here okay but the problem is you didn't know this you didn't know this then okay but then you find out that according to every scripture in the Bible that you are to be the image was ain't working image of Christ and this is what really throws something go go okay and we could but that's very it's real and not solid for a lot of people but the scripture also tells us in Colossians that we are to be and to have the fullness of God in us that's what he says where now when we have the fullness of God in us then we're gonna be walking in the image of Christ because the image God was in Christ and in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and that is God's ultimate plan for all of us that we be so filled with God that we are that you really can't tell where we stop and he starts understand now understand I'm not saying you're gonna turn into God I'm not saying that at all I'm just saying that you're only filled with him amen and therefore your nature character desires thoughts all of these things should be guided and here's what I really want to get to because most people the same could do one more right here now this one is where you are today I say today most people think here in the terms of your job or if you don't have a job maybe you have a career okay and the whole idea is that we have to look at this through the filter of all of this that if we're going to have a job or a career it has to be in line with this now many people say well God called me to this this is my calling okay first off we know in the Bible that when you read the Apostle Paul or Mel C says called of God called by God to be an apostle called an apostle of Jesus Christ he was called to that so we know that and that's a calling out of Ephesians 4 that Ephesians 4 talks about how God gave apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers and that we call that a calling we have to realize that that reference to a calling there is his job so to speak but first and foremost he was called to be a saint called to be a Christian right called to the image of Christ and we have to realize that the calling a matter of fact I would challenge you this idea of callings well I'm called to be a doctor I'm called to be a policeman I'm called to death God's calling for my life you won't find that in the Bible okay that is not biblical good you are called to be in the image of Christ now you will not find people quoted alternate hours well for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance okay wrong okay the Bible doesn't say that the Bible says that the gifts and calling or without repentance not the gifts plural and callings plural it's the gifts plural and the calling singular of God are without repentance that calling the Greek word that is Kaleo and it literally means to be called to God in other words God called you to himself matter of fact that's exactly what it says about Jesus and the disciples said he called unto Him the twelve and ordained them that they should be with him and that they should go and preach right the first calling is to be with them that was the first calling in the other disciples was to be with Jesus right and we have to realize your calling is to be with God he called you that's why he tells us make your your calling an election sure calling an election make it sure not your callings no he's not saying make sure that the job you're doing is the career he called you to he is saying make your calling make the fact that he called you make that solid make that election the fact that he elected you to be the elect of God that you are called out from the world and that's literally what it means when it when it talks about that we are called out of this world it means to be called to him not called to a job or career I want you to understand that right if you think that your job or career is your calling then you're going to focus on that and and here's the problem people will often especially Christian so they will say my job my career is my calling and because of that now they can say that's why I can I can skip church to go to work what because that is my calling and it's likely been in church and there's a big thing about and you should be the same no matter where you are right I'm not saying you shouldn't I'm saying that you need to let me put it in an easy term whatever God has called you okay to be or to do it has to go through this filter we know this God has called you to be conformed to the image of Christ so whatever job career whatever it is you have also has to fall in alignment with helping you to be who you are in Christ if your job cannot help you be understand I'm saying I'm not telling you go quit your job okay to understand it but I'm telling you that if your job will not does not help you not just neutral if it does not help you then you can't say that that job is your calling because the calling of God would help you be this the understand that God can't have two different callings one call to make you like Jesus and yet this job over here requires you to you know fudge a little on your reports you see what I'm saying okay well God called me to work at this grocery store okay let me ask you a question does it sell alcohol does it sell things that destroy the human body because God can't call you there and have you doing that and then have you promoting that and have it in promoting darkness and yet calling yourself light you understand that now all I'm saying is that you can't say that the job you have is your calling unless that job is also being used to make you look more like Jesus are you with me so far I know I know I'm just totally messing up your American Dream that's one of the main things that what I hear from it well you know here's the thing you know God has blessed us he's given me a good job he's giving me a good home and he's allowed me to have enough money to send all my kids to college and don't blame God that your kids are going to college because when they come home atheist then it wasn't God's will you understand I'm not against college I'm just saying if you're going to go you better go there as a missionary and and and honestly the minute you submit yourself under the authority of another person you allow stuff to come in to you you allow their belief system because of your submission under them that's why it's so there's no difference you got to realize this there is no difference between you going to a college and submitting under the leadership of a professor who is an atheist as it would be whenever you go you go to a church and submit yourself under a pastor who says well thirty percent of the Bible is passed away do you understand what I'm saying so you submit well anywhere you go and you and you are a part of a local body you are submitting under the headship of that body that's the way it is and if you continue there what will happen is the belief system and characteristics of the leadership of that body you will eventually embrace and it will be a part of your DNA that's what happens that's why I tell people all the time people write me all the time and say I go to a church and they say healings passed away but I want to bring this message to them good do it from a distance leave that dumb dead thing get out from under it because as long as you're there you're you are sick by being there you are submitting under that leadership and now when you're trying to change it now you are in rebellion even though you're right in what you're saying you're wrong and how you're doing it do you get that it'd be better to leave that thing and maintain a relationship with that pastor and try to change it from there because at least now it's honorable and you're not being you're not allowing the spiritual understandings to be automatically dumped into you which is what happens when you submit said whenever you when you come forward for prayer at that point during that time you are submitting under the authority of that person do you get that when you when someone lays hands on you you are allowing them you are submitting under their authority and allowing that to happen recently there was a situation where a person was bleeding and immediately I began commanding the bleeding to stop and it did it I can't say totally stopped but it slowed down to the degree that it was not an emergency and then later at the hospital a emergency room person came over and said okay I'll take over now and as soon as they said that the bleeding started back again why a transfer of authority see that's what happens depending on who's in authority and who's submitting to that authority you have to realize this goes so much further than just what we think and what we see in the natural realm there are spiritual forces at work right now in this room at least two of them right one is trying to get you to listen and focus and the other is trying to get you to remember if you turn the stove off okay and just trying to get you focused somewhere else right and so you have to be able to focus on what is important at the time all right now so here's the thing okay let me because we're talking about finding your course in first Corinthians chapter 7 verse 18 it starts and this is of course Paul writing to the Corinthian church now the Corinthian is a the Corinthian church is a good model in the sense that it starts from a very messed up church and so they're messed up and you know where the start is and then you can build from there so let's go back to there and say okay this would be a beginning to look at first Corinthians chapter 7 verse 18 is any man called being circumcised now notice as any man called being circles that in other words whenever you came to Christ as anybody there in the congregation of the Corinthians when you were called to come to Christ were you circumcised before that in other words is that was that the state you were in when God called you to himself right then he says let him not become uncircumcised okay is any called in uncircumcision let him not be circumcised what's he saying how you come to Christ is how you stay you got that no no watch he says circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God there you go it's not these our things it's what happens we got you got that now watch it says verse 20 let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called you that now that calling is not as an impossible profit event it's not that he's saying whatever whatever job you were doing right whatever job you're doing stay there now watch I'll prove it because the next verse here he says are you called being a servant care not for it and words don't let that be a big deal but if you may be free find use it for he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the lords freemen lack was also he that is called being free is Christ servant you were bought with a price but no notice be not ye the servants of men brethren let every man wear a knee is called therein abide with God so what's he said let's put it this way in modern times we'd say whatever job you had when God called you stay there pretty much that's it didn't nobody say so now he's not saying I'm against you prospering and moving up no he's not saying that at all he's saying that you don't have because what you were called if God called you you don't have to stop being what you were called as long as it wasn't unrighteous right as long as they didn't violate the commandments might say but but now notice this proves that God did not have a specific calling you get that because he's saying whatever calling you were call didn't stay there he didn't say well if it's this this and this and good no you don't you don't have to there's not this job that's holy in that job that's not we have to realize we are holy so whatever job we do will be holy so wherever you're at you should be holy in that job now if that job prevents you from being holy changed jobs that makes sense is this I'm trying to be very practical but very blunt okay this this is stuff that you can use in your life to help you as you go forward now but here's the real purposes what I won't get to your initial course your general course must direct you to your ultimate end right one way to look at is this and and I hesitate to say this because there are so many people that really don't have a good understanding of what in it's going to be like after this is over and they have an idea that we're going to float around on clouds and play harps and stuff like that and the Bible doesn't say that at all okay matter of fact it's there's some specifics in there that's pretty amazing but one way that I would present this to you is I would say this whatever you could not do in the let's say the Millennial Kingdom okay you understand what I mean with that whenever Christ physically reigns from Jerusalem whenever that happens and there will be peace throughout the earth and all the stuffs going on okay I'm talked about after all this is a wit whatever you could whatever you could not do in that Kingdom then that proves that if you're doing it now that that's not going to be your job then so that proves that's not God's call for you now does that make sense what you do now you should be able to do in the kingdom you got that what's your what you do now that job should transfer into the kingdom now most people and hopefully this will help that help straighten up to I have met so many people that go into the medical profession and they say yeah God called me the medical profession and then they go to a DHT and they realize they were never caught of the medical profession they were called to be healers in God's kingdom they were called to minister healing and they but they're trying to fulfill a spiritual call so to speak through natural means but because they didn't know that there was a spiritual fulfillment than their natural thing was to do it in the natural and so it's the same thing with policemen now we know that police went according to Romans 13 they are ministers of God amen and because of that then we should be praying for them maybe if the church spent more time praying for him there wouldn't be near as much other stuff about them maybe if we covered them in prayer maybe if we started praying for them and started helping and helping them that way maybe there wouldn't be the wrongful shootings maybe there wouldn't be things where people make mistakes or do you understand I'm not trying to you know take sides necessarily I'm just trying to say that if the church prayed more as the ekklesia and started ruling for Christ here we would say less things going on and we would say more of God's of the policeman able to be God's ministers amen does that make sense to you now but he said well are there going to be policemen in the kingdom well the thing is policemen even what are they doing they are exercising Authority and they are keeping the law and now transfer that over what are we as believers that's what we're supposed to be doing we are supposed to be walking in Jesus's authority and upholding the law of God but doing it with justice and mercy amen does that make sense and so that natural thing you know it's funny because if you go back in in my natural history sort of thing my father was a policeman his dad before him was a marshal of a city here in North Texas before that if you go back all the way back to where our families one part of our family came from was in Ireland and there was a person there whose name was Blake which was the Irish of saying black because his hair was very black and amongst Irish people that stands out and so he had very black hair and it's very long and he was the first sheriff and they actually started a town around him called Blake town and it's there today in Ireland and it's you know where for our history my heritage back there but police work law enforcement and our family goes back five hundred years at least and so and it's funny because my grandfather didn't never knew that my dad never knew that I didn't find that out until someone did some you know ancestry stuff on us and then brought it all out so we didn't know that but it is in US and then whenever I went into the Air Force I went in as law enforcement specialist and then eventually in a pair rescue but then later went into I worked at the prison unit here in in South Texas at the walls unit in Huntsville as a prison guard so that law enforcement thing is there the idea of authority and to protect and to serve it is in our family it's been and it's in me even though I now see what I was doing is I was trying to fulfill a spiritual call through natural means and then I found the spiritual fulfillment and now I'm exerting authority I'm protecting and serving and exercising authority and keeping the law of God spiritually say so there is a connection there now but the whole point of this is this you have to find your course and your course is not just necessarily your dream right but and most people's dream isn't even their dream most people's dream or their parents dream for them that's the other thing and that's why many times it doesn't work because you're not into it all the way you're only playing at it because you're trying to please somebody else so now watch this he goes on he says in Romans 8 verse 29 for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren so there it is again that's at least three different verses I've given you if Asians for me that's a yeah for 11 and he gave some apostles some prophets some Avengers some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints the maturing the completion of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God so this is these are all directions we're headed unto a perfect mature complete person under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that's what a perfect person is so this is what we're going that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ so over and over again I'm showing you this is God's plan for you notice he didn't say this is this is my plan that you do this so that you do that right God's plan is that you be conformed the image of Christ in the process of that he expects you to take care of your family he expects you to do good he expects you to share what you have with those that don't have it so that it can help them and lift them up do you understand so no matter what job you're in you are to do that job righteous for you're to do it not as unto men like your boss will do it as unto the Lord if you can't do your job as unto the Lord you need to change jobs is that real simple okay now you say but then other jobs doesn't pay as much what is the price of your soul what is it worth right because I can tell you you can take a lesser paying job and God can meet your needs and cause your needs to be met through other areas that you didn't even expect before right we've I've seen it myself it's it's proven so now notice for your job to be your quote-unquote calling it would have to come through the fivefold ministry because that's what he put in there for you to grow up to be like him okay and it would have to be useful to conform you to the image of Christ and it would have to be have benefit in the kingdom of God throughout eternity right that's how you can tell if the job you're doing is your God called career if you want to call it that okay most secular areas are substitutes for your spiritual gifting and are used to foster the American Dream that's that's why people do them right now and it's funny now on the other hand if I want to make sure that I'm balanced in this teaching because there are people who would say I don't believe in that prosperity stuff but you'll take a promotion promotion at your job which will come with it with a higher paycheck yeah well it's got to be God it's a it's a hire it's a promotion so you do believe in prosperity you just don't believe in trusting God for it right that make sense I'm just hoping to make you think a little bit right because it's real easy for us to condemn people we see this person we see that person oh look they shouldn't do their station okay I get that there is excess and Christians should not be living in excess amen excess where you can just heap it upon your own lust James says we that's not what we're here for we are here to be funnels to be conduits of the Spirit of God and the power of God and the blessing of God to help others amen we're not here just to gather up what we can but it's the same time as you sow you're going to reap and you always reap more than you sow so if you're really sowing you're going to be reaping and you can't outgive God so his reaping will always be more than you're sowing so at some point you should be prospering but if you argue against prospering now even if you so you're sowing you won't reap from your soem because you stand against the reaping does that make sense alright hopefully it's as helping you okay so now notice look at acts 26 we're just about finished here acts 26 some things are fun to preach some things you gotta preach this is kind of bridging between the two right because it's always fun to kill religious sacred cows but at the same time sometimes it's not as pleasant or it's fun you know I'd much rather be telling you about healings and testimonies and awesome things and things you know miracles that we seen God do that that's and we teach on that regular but there are some things you need to know as we move forward where God is taking this body that you need to have in place so that God can be able to work through you to accomplish his will for this area all right now in acts 26 verse 13 watch this here you could just write about that Paul finds his course okay not his career not a job see there's a difference there's a difference between a job and a career and a course see a job you get paid for a career you enjoy getting paid for generally speaking right but of course you'd do it even if you didn't get paid right that's the course of your life that's of course God has you want now if you what you if your course includes what you enjoy doing which God should put that in you to enjoy then you're in the best of both worlds right that's when it gets good so in acts 26 Paul finds this course verse 13 here he is preaching or he's actually sharing his testimony he says at midday o King I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and then which journeyed with me and when we were all fallen to the earth now it wasn't just Paul that fell they all fell right I heard a voice speaking unto me now notice here hear the voice but the others did not hear it right and saying in the Hebrew tongue Saul Saul why persecutest thou me it is hard for you to kick against the thorns and I said who art thou Lord and he said I am Jesus whom you persecute now watch what Jesus says but rise and stand up on your feet for I have appeared unto you for this purpose why did Jesus show up well first off he stopped the persecution right but he said here's why I showed up to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen and of those things into which I will appear unto you so here he just shows up for the first time Saul doesn't even know him he says who are you he says I'm Jesus he says and here's why I'm here I'm here to make you a minister and a witness and I'm gonna make sure that you share what you have seen but also I'm gonna make sure you share what I haven't even shown you yet but I'm gonna appear to you and tell you things now we know later that he had interviews with Jesus we might say we're by revelation Jesus appeared to him it says and by revelation he knew this understanding of the new creation and what that was and that's what he was referring to now what it watch he says verse 17 here's why he showed up to give him call him a minister and to make him a witness delivering you from the people well that's good right he was delivered from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I sinned you you that so now notice he just got his commissioned he gets saved right he gets told his course and he gets commissioned all in one in one moment in that amazing and and he even has to promise that Jesus is gonna appear to him later now that should build some faith alright in hit I mean saw dressed interested Wow okay but I'm sure he didn't get the import of it at the point but now he's standing before a king because now watch he says and we'll come back to this in just a minute but now notice it says under whom now I send you which he says I'm delivering you from the people the Jews and from the Gentiles now watch he says when I delivered you from the Gentiles he says unto whom now I send you so now he knows he's commissioned to go to the Gentiles not just to the Jews right then he says to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that which are sanctified by faith that is in me here that here's my purpose here's why I'm appearing to you to cause you to turn to to cause you to cause them to turn to me from darkness to light from Satan to God and so we see his purpose right to the Gentiles so from the beginning we know God's purpose was to was for Paul to go to the Gentiles okay now the sad part is it was a long time before that actually happened many years actually then he says in verse 19 whereupon Oh King Agrippa I was not disobedient under that heavenly vision well he wasn't disobedient but he was a little slow right because it was several years fourteen years later he goes out in the wilderness of Arabian desert and all that verse 20 but first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles now watch that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance you hear that now this is in acts 26 to chapter before the end of the book and Paul is still preaching two things mainly repent turn to God and bring forth works showing your repentance you hear that and this was like this was probably around late 50s maybe early 60s in the first century so all that time they were still preaching repentance turning to God and bringing forth works that proved you repented now is that not a far cry from what a lot we hear today well not in here but in some places right then he says now watch well first I'll G this Paul found his course Paul knew from the beginning what he was called to do now that's that's awesome that you find it that quick whatever I when I realized that God had called me to ministry and that I was supposed to be doing that full-time I was 17 years old I did not enter full-time ministry full-time until what 25 almost 30 years later right I was ministering as I could but I was learning I was growing there was a preparation time and it was amazing this actually marks my 40th year of ministry just not full-time ministry because we really launched out full-time about 97 in the year 2000 writing that time but now notice here he found his course and I knew from the beginning I knew I didn't know what my total course was but I knew the direction of it I knew and God told her from the beginning he said you'll be in some ways like John the Baptist's a voice and world is crying out but and I didn't realize at the time that that mainly meant that I would have a message that would be different and would get a lot of reaction from religious people which it did so and still does in some cases but Paul found his course but as many years for we actually focus on the Gentiles it is the duty of the ministry the fivefold ministry to help you find and fulfill your course you that that that's one of my jobs is to help you find your course and live it out you know many people never find their course and if you don't find your course you can't fulfill your course and if you don't fulfill your course you can't finish your course many people just live a life I remember Kenneth Hagin one time said he was in ministry 40 years I think that's 40 years might have been a little bit listening but he said and then finally Jesus told him whenever he started doing a certain thing he said now after he had pastored like four churches did all this stuff he said and Jesus told him now you finally entered into the ministry that I've called you to now that's not a good word right but but I've been in ministry for 25 years yeah and you just now started what I called you to do all that before that was what you were doing now think about that that be a horrible place to be in and so we need to realize we need to find our course fulfill our course and finish our course now Acts chapter 20 verse 22 and like I said I'm just about finished here verse 22 and now behold I go this is Paul I go bound in the spirit and to Jerusalem otherwords I gotta go I'm not choosing you know it wouldn't be my first choice but I've got to go I'm bound in the spirit the Spirit is driving me there not knowing that things that shall befall me there and notice he said I don't know what's gonna happen there but he knows this here's what he knows except that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city that I go through saying that bonds and afflictions abide me and words I don't know what's going to happen there all I know is there where I go prophets step up and go hey where you're going you're gonna be bound you're gonna go through affliction you're gonna have a hard time and that's not the prophecies people want but how many of you know if you know us from God it'll prepare you so when you do go through it you'll say yeah I'm still in the will of God I'm still moving forward I'm prepared because nowadays you go through troubles everybody thinks you must be in sin because your life is supposed to be perfect you know it could be that you're exactly the middle of God's will right in the middle of that trial and tribulation not that God's will is trial and tribulation but you're his will is that you be amongst people who are gonna try and tribulation he says in verse 24 but none of these things move me neither account my life dear unto myself now watch so that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus now notice finish my course and the ministry the men and this is one of the hard things for ministers is differentiating between the ministry and their life call with God say my call I'm in ministry and I know and God has the plan for the ministry and the Ministry is going according to plan but I have to make sure that first and foremost that my life does not become the ministry and that the ministry does not become my life you see my life is to be called to be with him so I'm to walk with him in the course of me walking with him and being conformed the image of Christ I am to minister and the ministry that I do is an outflow of my call and my walk with Him do you give that it's really hard sometimes to differentiate between the two because you see the need of the people so finally he says which I have received the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God now the word course there that Paul said to finish my course notice the word as he used to finish my course it's a Greek word dromos and it means a course or a journey you might say but it's where we also get the word drama dromos so don't be surprised when your course of ministry is full of drama okay why because you're gonna be dealing with people and where there's people there's gonna be drama amen just don't be part of the drama fulfill your Dro most not your drama okay be a drama queen not a drama queen yeah Acts chapter 9 now let's look at what Jesus Jesus spoke to Ananias about Saul Paul here's what he said acts 9 fifteen but the Lord said unto him go your way Stocki Ananias for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel that sounds good he's a chosen vessel who that's a good work he's going to bear my name before Gentiles before Kings before the children of Israel Oh sounds glorious okay look at verse 16 for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake see it starts good you gotta listen to everything alright oh great that I'm gonna stand before kings yeah the party didn't tell him was when you're standing four kings you're gonna be in Chains so you didn't tell him that part he said you'll stand before kings he didn't say you're gonna stand there in glory you're gonna stand there as a prisoner and you're still gonna preach the gospel to Kings right now visions 2 also says so Paul knew the sufferings ever coming he just didn't know what they were Ephesians 2 verse 1 and and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world now this word course is a different word the word course here is a word Aion where we get eons or age right according to the age of this world No and according to how this world system operates you used to operate the way the world system lives but according to the prints of power of the air the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience and when it talks about the world he's talking about the world pattern but he's talking about specifically this system in the world that is evil then finally in a 2nd Timothy 4 I say find him because it's Paul's finally not my finally just so you know for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand you notice that here he says he's fixing be killed martyred and he says I'm ready to be offered his life poured out his blood was going to be an offering unto Jesus that's the way he saw it he didn't say and I don't know why God didn't deliver me I don't understand I'm praying he's not even saying he goes out men I'm ready to be offered my blood is gonna be poured out I'm gonna be a martyr from my King Jesus I'm gonna see him face to face I can't wait to get there think about that that's the way he looked at this and he said and the time of my departure is at him now notice he said departure his body wasn't going anywhere except into the ground he was leaving which proves you or not your body okay he says I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith finishing your course means keeping the faith unto the very end many people start good some start bad end up good some start good end up bad what counts is not how you start your course what counts is how you finish your course when you finish your course you ought to finish your course with stronger faith stronger love more the character of Jesus then whenever you started your course you're not just supposed to get your ticket punched and wait for Jesus to come and get you out of here amen you are to end up closer like him you were made like him in spirit you ought to look more and more like him the longer you're here and you are to be like him whenever you depart here now and again the word course there again is the word dromos so again it's the life it's your pattern of life and now Paul found his course Paul fulfilled his course regardless of the circumstances and the situation's regardless of the hardships and the adversities when Paul told Timothy and second Timothy 2 verse 2 he said and the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ no man that Wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life he already said if you're going to finish your course you got to fight a good faith a good fight so if you're going to fight a good fight and finish your cool and keep the faith then that means that you have to not entangle yourself with the affairs of this world something so many Christians are so absolutely entangled in this world system and the world's way of doing things that if Jesus came back today and said come and go with me you'd say I'm sorry I gotta give two weeks notice you know I can't go I owe this debt of money and you know I owe that Nate I can't leave it undone is it well I can't go now because if I go now what are we gonna do with that house I mean I got a mortgage on if I if I leave they'll foreclose on it see and you yeah you laugh because it is it sounds funny but the fact is too often we put these other things more important than the reality of the spiritual things that we are supposed to be all about spirit soul and body we're to love God with all of our mind heart soul strength every bit of it amen and we just can't get entangled in the affairs of this world of this life so finally and here's what I really want to bring out about this situation you realize when Paul told Timothy this this wasn't just Paul writing a letter you know imagine if you got a letter from somebody okay I'll just read it he was not commanding Timothy to endure hardship while he sat in a palace eating grapes from a servant girl's hands you get that the reason what he said had the weight of conviction behind it was because he had lived it he had suffered hardship he had gone through the things Timothy knew what he had suffered for the gospel he wasn't just rotten in saying oh yeah Timothy just you suffer hardship you know and and and I'll be there I'll be there in a few days I'm waiting on my new chariot to you know get out of the shop and they'll get from the dealer and I'm gonna travel there in style you know because I don't want to go there I don't want to take the old I don't have to ride a horse there that'd be too rough I want to ride in this chariot thing I want to ride in this in this wagon it'll be you know so much more comfortable that didn't what Paul did Paul put the mission first and everything else came second after that why because he was not entangled in the affairs of life he had already died to everything else so he was his words to Timothy had power behind them because Timothy knew what Paul had suffered just to do what he was telling Timothy to do which was what why did he tell to me to do preach the word in season and out when it's convenient and when it's not when it cost you and when it doesn't cost you whenever you stand to lose everything you stand Paul found his course Paul fulfilled his course Paul finished his course it doesn't matter how how you start your course it only matters how you fulfill your course now you finish it some start well some start rough some do well some fall get back up some never get back up right now most of you has been around the church for a long time you could go through a list of scandals and a list of preachers that have fallen and and brought disrepute on the name of Jesus and some of them have come back up and it's sad because it's the church that won't ever let them get back up you know well I'm not gonna listen to him because I know what he did and if he knew what you did he wouldn't listen to you probably but then of course now he probably probably have grace for you so at what point do we have grace worry I'm not talking about just letting sin run rampant I'm saying when there is fruits of repentance that we have to give grace amen so some start well but don't finish their course well some make shipwreck of their own faith Paul talks about this which means it's possible some are cast away because they don't discipline themselves you hear that Paul talked about he said 1st Corinthians 9:27 but I keep my body under and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when i have preached to others i myself should be a castaway so we know it's a possibility and he said i keep my body under i don't let my body tell me what i do i tell it what to do why because i don't want to preach and then be a castaway later that means that we have some aspect of control over whether we are vessels of honor or dishonor it's not got just god's choice god's choice is that he called us now it's up to how we fulfill that calling to be with him and walk with him some like John Alexander Dowie do a great service for God probably one of the greatest ever and yet they don't finish their course right because of pride because of maybe self-deception they started thinking more highly than self than they ought started good fulfilled his course but didn't finish good that's a shame that anybody would not finish well when you've gone through all of that he went through to bring forward what he did and then to finish bad is just it's sad some like dr. Lester Sumrall god bless him he is a person you can look to beat why because he finished his course of over fifty years of ministry fifty years of service to God without ever even a hint of scandal in his life that's an example that's what we should all be striving toward is to make sure that we live a life that whenever the stories of our lives are written it doesn't have a sad ending that it has a good ending because God knows the plans he has worth plans of good not evil God wants us to grow brighter and brighter into the perfect day not get so bright like some little you know bottle rocket preacher you know shoot into the atmosphere like a big dealing didn't just disappear that's not God's will so john lake john lake finished well but now we have to also understand people said well why did he die at sixty-five you know the Bible says we should live to seventy at least or these other ages and and that would be true but let's see how you finish right before you start casting stones at him let's see how you finish and so the thing to remember is this if you go back to 1935 when he passed away the expected life or the life expectancy of men in 1935 with 59 years old he lived a 65 he did better than the average of what people lived at right maybe didn't fulfill God's best but he did better than those around him amen I'm not saying that's our standard I'm just saying before you start mouthing about John Lake let's make sure you live past the expected age right so it is not enough that you find what you're supposed to do for God you must then fulfill God's will for your life this doesn't just mean to be a good eloquent orator it means in both service and character you must always be becoming more like Christ publicly but even more important privately it's not just how you are when you're around people what do you like when no one's around you must finish your course run the race run to win like Paul said and to win you have to run according to the rules be a vessel unto honor purge yourself of those things that would bring dishonor to your King find your course fulfill your course finish your course to find your course all you have to do is kneel at the cross that's your course your course is to be like Jesus your course is to be conformed to his image to fulfill your course every day you move toward him every day you become more like him on the outside because you're made like him on the inside and when the in comes when you finish your course you do it well with honor you do it well you you accomplished what you were sent to do you don't just have the biggest house the newest car are the newest stuff you impact the most lives you can for the kingdom of God and that doesn't mean you have to be a preacher to do it but a lot of people are impacting lives right now and God has God has taken away every person's excuse for not impacting the world the day he allowed the internet to be created because any person can impact the world from your home it's about time to take it back to the devil you amen so do you get anything out of this this morning let's finish the course we've got to get a great adventure coming back toward us now [Music] you you

Channel: John G. Lake Ministries

Views: 10,744

Rating: 4.8756475 out of 5

Keywords: John G. Lake Ministries, JGLM, Curry Blake, Divine Healing Technician, DHT, New Man Seminar, Life Teams, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Dominion Bible Institute, Diversities of Tongues, God's Son Man's Servant, Renewed Mind, Healing in the Atonement, Killing Sacred Cows, iChurch, JGLM Media

Id: ojNoCgLthJE

Length: 74min 33sec (4473 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 23 2017