You Are Not Crazy | Pastor Jentezen Franklin

i'm reading this morning for just a few moments from the book of mark chapter 10 verse 43 and it shall not be so among you and he's in reference to how big shots act because he just mentioned how the authorities kind of lowered themselves over the people but he says in verse 43 let it not be so among you but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant i'm preaching this morning a different message for lack of a better title this is the only one i could come up with you're not crazy turn to somebody and say i'm not crazy i know you i know you were wondering but i'm not crazy i'm not i'm not jesus defines what true greatness is when he said if you want to be great you must be a servant it's impossible to achieve greatness in the kingdom of god and live for yourself you must serve other people god measures greatness in terms of service not status he measures greatness not in how many people serve you but how many people you serve the total opposite of our culture which is if you've got lots of people doing lots of things for you you must be great wow but jesus said greatness is not how many are serving you but how many people you're serving and you're helping jesus disciples were in an argument in the text i interrupted it and gave cut to the chase but they were in an argument for the top spot who will be greatest in your kingdom it ought to be me no it ought to be me no you're no good i'm much better than you are it ought to be me and jesus interrupted them all and said if you want to be great you must be a servant to be like jesus is to be a servant because he called himself a servant you have to know what your gift is and you have to deploy the gift to serve the lord every one of you have in your dna have in your very being a gift that god can use for his kingdom to serve other people and in doing so your gift will make other people better and in doing so you're doing it unto jesus the only way to serve god is by serving those that he loves if you don't serve those that he love you don't serve god real servants make themselves available real servants jump in when called on real servants do not wait to be begged galatians chapter 6 and verse 10 said whenever we have the opportunity we have to do something when it's good especially for the family of believers we should do it jesus washed people's feet jesus held children jesus he was in the nursery ministry jesus fixed breakfast for the disciples the greatest god man god in skin on earth is fixing breakfast he didn't do it one time but you read and his favorite breakfast meal was fish and bread that was he just he whipped it up he threw peppers and onions and jalapenos in it and it was amazing and he fixed it over can you see the beautiful ministry of jesus not just miracles signs and wonders before multitudes but he fixed breakfast for the disciples he he he touched and served lepers nothing was beneath him nothing was too too low for him real servants secondly are faithful they don't leave a job half done they don't quit until it's done until it's finished they're faithful jesus understood this principle because he taught in matthew 25 in the parable of the talents that if you don't use the gift that you have it should be taken from you jesus said there was a man who had one talent and he would not do anything to help and serve and jesus being the non-socialist that jesus was said if you don't use what you've got i'll take it from you not give you more i'll take it from you and i'll give it to the man who has ten talents who will work with what he's got to make something out of nothing jesus was not a socialist this generation needs to hear this jesus said if you don't use what you've got and you're too lazy to do something with the talent that you've got i'm not going to reward you by giving you a check i just lost you but i'm going to preach the truth jesus sweet jesus said take that talent away from them and give it to the guy who took the 10. he didn't have 30 like the other guy he took 10 and he turned it into more give it to him because he's productive and he's a worker when you fail to use what you've been given you'll lose it real servants keep a low profile because self-promotion and servanthood don't mix many people start out as a servant in the shadows but end up celebrities but jesus never did that paul never did that the greater they became the more of a servant they became they became many people become addicted to the attention because the spotlight can blind you and the hidden parts of the body are the most important parts of the body i don't care how pretty your face is if your heart and your kidneys and your lungs don't work the parts that nobody sees then it's not going it's a matter of time before your face gets withered up and goes away and same is true in the body of christ it's the hidden parts of a church and a ministry that make it powerful and useful they they they serve in the shadows not in the spotlight i'm in the spotlight these some of these are in the spotlight the names of pastors are in the spotlight but it's the people who make ministry happen in the unseen they give they they pray they serve and they make ministry happen you have to understand what jesus said he said the father who sees you in secret will reward you openly there are people who are teaching in the special needs class this morning precious little children and they'll never have a spotlight but they're down there and they're loving maybe one or two children while a parent gets to sit up here the only time they get for themself to sit in the presence of god and hear songs sung after a week like they had and there's somebody down there taking care of those children it doesn't sound great it doesn't sound like some big deal but in the eyes of god that's about as big as it'll get somewhere there is [Applause] someone cleaning an elder in a rest home who cannot clean themself this is greatness colossians said throw yourself into the work of the master confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort sometimes when you really work for the lord and you give yourself to the kingdom and i see these beautiful young people in the bible college and giving themselves giving the prime years of their life to the kingdom i see this amazing staff and they're so young this stage filled with beautiful young people and the enemy will tell you you're crazy you're missing out on so much the world's having such a party without you when the truth is listen to what the text said throw yourself into the work of the master confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort i did that i did that when i was a teenager i did that when i was 15 years old and god saved me and filled me with the holy spirit i threw myself in the ministry i i never looked back i put my hand to the plow and i have never turned back and i'll never turn back i'm not crazy for serving the lord all the days of my life somebody give him a praise and say amen the apostle paul man i don't know what's going on why am i crying it's the presence of the lord lift your hands and worship him and say i'm not crazy for being in a packed church on sunday morning i don't care what anybody thinks i'm not crazy i choose this i don't have a chain either i can go if i want to go i can go do any crazy thing i choose as as for me in my house we will serve the lord everybody take a praise break even in the overflow and then i'll keep going oh you're worthy of it all lord yes you are man that scripture messed me up hallelujah philippians 2 and verse 25 paul said ephraditis my fellow worker ministered to my need paul commended this no name epheditis and he noticed the title he gave him my fellow worker you know the apostle paul was so conscious about being a servant that he refused to take an offering for the first few years he was building a church in a particular city the bible said he worked as a tent maker making people understand that what he was doing he was doing as a volunteer he was doing as a person who had a business but he was showing the model of being a servant to the kingdom of god and to the king of kings and he said my fellow worker because i worked as much as he did my fellow worker ministered to my need what was his need encouragement the bible is filled with people who needed encouragement moses needed encouragement and jethro his father-in-law gave it to him paul needed it in prison and people jeopardized their own safety that they could go and they ministered to him materially and and physically with food and clothing the bible said they brought him books they brought him he said bring my coat before it gets winter in the sale and they would bring him special needs that he had physically and spiritually and when you understand that servanthood is throughout all of the scripture when jesus began inviting peter james and john and all the disciples to follow him to help him spread the news of the kingdom he was making a very strategic decision he did not say i'm going to build this mighty kingdom as a solo act he could have he had it all he was the whole package but he said i'm going to use an army of volunteers who will deploy their particular gift in the kingdom of god it will not be a place where people come and sit and consume but it will be a place where people come and they they get stirred up and they get here teaching and something in them clicks with a spirit of amazing gratitude that jesus saved a wretch like me i must give back i must tell others i must be a part of something that reaches others jesus could have built his ministry with fundraisers and market marketers that caused him to have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of employees in his worldwide organization but he didn't do it that way he said if i'm going to advance the kingdom of god primarily it will be done on the shoulders of spirit-filled volunteers acts chapter 2 the beginning of the church it it was the holy spirit was poured out and mostly unpaid workers went to work building the kingdom of god in ephesians chapter four and verse one that paul the apostle instructs pastors to mobilize every person in the church not to come and sit and soak not to hear another sermon or sit through another church service but he charged the pastors with this main job description of a pastor train and equip and envision into the people a lifetime of volunteering and working for the kingdom of god paul felt so strongly about this volunteerism that he said i myself am a servant of the lord jesus christ the idea the idea of volunteerism is laced throughout the entire new testament when you understand how we do it it's so backwards we hire a pastor and we expect the pastor to do everything that's not in the bible it's not there the pastor has one job description to equip the saints and when the saints are equipped and when they recognize what category their particular gift is in they're supposed to deploy that spiritual gift and use it if it's marketing use it if it's if it's administrative gifts use it if it's teaching gifts use it if it's musical gifts use it if it's financial gifts then go out and work and work and bring your resources in and finance the kingdom of god but every one of us have something if if it's greeting if it's smiling if it's see these people parking these cars outside are not crazy they're gonna have a bigger mansion than you have in heaven you don't understand the poor guy what's he doing out there doing i tell you what he's doing he's ministering unto the lord that's what he's doing and jesus sees that stuff [Applause] is so important the doctrine of servanthood the apostle paul said i am a servant of jesus christ we go to church like we're shopping thrill me bless me we see ourselves as the consumers i like the children's ministry i don't like the music i like the people in the lobby they were friendly i don't like the bathrooms i do like this i don't like that and we make our decision the apostle paul said you're crazy the apostle paul said i am a servant when i go to church reporting for duty give me the heavy end of the log i'm ready to go to work i'm ready to roll up my sleeves and if this church is lacking in some area instead of going and trying to find it somewhere else i think i'll just get in there and build it myself and show them how to do it wow what kind of church would that be [Applause] again and again and again we need to say thank you to our volunteers you responded to teaching the holy spirit himself spoke to you and said get involved and you didn't play it off and they're all over this building they are they are an endangered species there's one standing against that pillow over there right there that's bill bill works for nobel amen he never turns in a bill bill bill has been an usher at free chapel for at least 12 years would you give him a hand and he's he's not crazy he's not crazy and greeters are not you know they got up this morning and somebody's wife turned to somebody's husband and said i don't feel like going and opening that dumb door and smiling i cook to turkey and dressing in all the fixings i'm tired but somebody has to do it and gets to do it [Applause] and if you give a cup of water in my name a bottle of water and a smile he said you're building the kingdom because when we give the altar call it didn't start in here it started out in the parking lot when the guy was smiling it started when the people said let me take your child and show you what class they go into it started in all when the sound man was getting sound prepared at 6 30 this morning and the volunteers were filling this campus and they were holding hands and praying in all the departments god give us souls today god help us all of that was going on before we ever get up here and preach and everybody says wow look at the altar really the work was done we just had to lift jesus and he would do the drawing volunteers that understand their spiritual gift are powerful there's an enormous amount of work that it takes to do what we do you don't just show up it's the duty of every pastor to tell the people and teach the people about spiritual gifts as a matter of fact hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17 said that the leader of the local church will stand before god and give an account of that of the of how they led their church that scripture haunts me a little bit that one day i will stand before the lord and i will be judged as a leader and as a pastor as all of these pastors will how did we lead the people did we equip them did we deploy their spiritual gifts did they do more than consume did they help spread the gospel of jesus christ this is a serious thing the individual is going to give an account not only pastors but you as an individual every one of you will stand not before the white throne judgment which is the judgment that separates sinners from lost people and they're sentenced into eternity without god into hell and all of that but there is the judgment of the believers where every believer will stand before god and you will give an account for the spiritual gift that you have you may not even know it but you have something about you that god can use and if you discover that guilt and you deploy that guilt for the glory of god watch out miracles start happening god has this crazy idea that instead of experts and professionals in every department of the church that it would be amazing if we discovered who the leaders are and leaders lead leaders in the church and teachers ought to be the teachers and shepherds those with a soft heart they ought to be the shepherds they ought to be the ones in their the gravesite they ought to be the ones reaching out checking up on people and administrators ought to be the administrator of the church and the business people that understand how to take what the church has and multiply it and they can build a massive corporation then build the church with your gift too and helps the ministry all of these are spiritual gifts helps we think spiritual gifts are miracles and signs and wonders and and and and and uh prophecy and tongues no these are listed as gifts the ministry of people who help people who do they just jump in and do it do you know one of the ministries the bible actually names gifts as a gift giving giving financial givers if you know without a doubt that you're anointed to make money i really don't want you here volunteering i want you to go out and work that's your calling that's your anointing and come in here sunday with another grin on your face saying hallelujah i get to deploy my gift i make money if i touch it it turns to gold but it's not me it's god that gives me power to get wealth according to deuteronomy 8 18 that he might establish his covenant in all the earth and i get to be involved with my gift and my gift is not more important than the parking lot my gift if i'm given a million dollars this morning it takes all of us doing it together but oh how powerful that is and we we're bad in the church about put you know putting little guilt trips on people if they don't have the gift to serve or they don't have the gift it would if you're doing what you do that's in your dna and so natural for you and you're connecting it to the kingdom of god that's that's what you'll be judged by we need to make sure our volunteers feel desperately needed and appreciated give me a big amen on that you're not crazy we have people in this church and i was talking with bill after the first service stand up bill wave your hand at everybody you can't miss him he's 19 feet tall wait wave at him but but but the thing about bill is when we first started coming out here and we had limited staff we only had one one full-time pastor and we literally brought the music pastor out with us every sunday and and boy it was something and this room filled up then we went to two services and we heard a couple more pastors but we're still on a very shoestring budget and and and the room filled up again and then we went to sunday night services and that meant we needed more ushers and more greeters and more children's workers and more nursery workers and more ministers somebody's down there changing diapers a dirty diaper and we oh bless their heart no you don't understand that's ministry scoop scoop scoop scoop that's ministry god sees that stuff at one time we were doing four services a sunday four four and he said when we would pull off the property he ushered in every one of them he said when we would pull off his wife his wife is down there right now in kid pack his special needs son comes in every sunday morning and cleans the pool out front the baptism tank under the cross is clean isn't it you only know why because his special needs kid goes out and cleans it let's hear it let's hear it for the endangered species called volunteers they deserve a bigger hand clap than any tv preacher who can walk in behind a pulpit the church would not exist without that special species i'm almost done you know when you take the time to serve in youth ministry invest in a kid mentor a kid something magical and powerful in any of these ministries when you join them whether it's the you come and worship in one service and serve in another service when you start doing stuff like that the the the benefit of that the sweetest revenge of volunteering and getting involved instead of just consuming is this fellowship the sweetest revenge of being involved in a ministry secretly what people are saying when they join those type ministries is i don't want to be alone i don't want to just come to church i don't want to sit alone i don't want to do life alone i want to meet some people who believe like i believe and love like i love and care like i care and i want to join myself with them and the sweetest revenge of volunteering and getting involved as a couple is you will meet other christian couples who are going through the exact and here's the thing after some big conference or some big event when you get alone in a small group or somewhere and somebody says how are you doing how are you doing what can i help you pray about what are you wouldn't it be something if you knew somebody cared that much about you this week you know how that happens you just jump in and get involved if you want if you this chris this little group up here and many of them volunteers that sings and pr and plays all week long they're not just doing that and and getting nothing out of it their family they pray together they stand together they check up on each other and when you get involved in a church like this that is what begins to happen to you and then your children get connected and then families get connected and homes get connected this is god's brilliant plan i really want to remind you in closing that that this stuff matters for all eternity some of you your gift is earning resources and i i i close with this story i was reading a book of a man who pastored an amazing church in in the chicago area at one time he no longer pastors and in that book he tells the story that i'm going to give to you right quick he said one day he said that as he was building church after church and great organization worldwide organization that's touched the planet he said there was one man in his church who kept giving like crazy giving like crazy he he recognized his spiritual gift was giving financially and the man made money like you wouldn't believe and he said one day he called him and said pastor can i have lunch with you and he said sure and he said i thought to myself he's so rich he'll pay for it why not and so he went out to eat with this very very wealthy man who had given literally millions according to his words millions and millions to help him do everything he'd done around the world listen to this and he said we chit-chatted and ate and said finally i recognized something was not quite right with him and i asked him so why are we here today and he named the guy's name and he said these words and this is where i got my little sermon title from he said i need somebody to tell me pastor i'm not crazy he said my accountant thinks i'm crazy my attorneys and lawyers who help me manage my vast fortune they think i'm crazy he said all my friends on the golf course they think i'm crazy but he said i made a decision that my gift was making money and i could have retired many times over and the only reason i'm still working is because i love to give but would you confirm to me i'm not crazy because a lot of my family thinks i'm crazy he said it he said my accountant every time we meet at the end of the year and they see my contribution to this church they scratch their head and they say are you crazy you're not even getting any tax deduction off of that amount anymore you far exceeded it and he said i just needed to hear somebody tell me i'm not crazy and i want to say to all of us who have given ourselves to ministry and all of you amazing people in god's house on a sunday morning and you get up and you come we are not crazy to those of us who give our tithes and our offerings and have done it i i have and i'm not bragging but since i worked at canton station which is a chinese restaurant in rocky mountain north carolina bus tables and i got my paycheck a few hundred dollars and i wrote my tithe check and i took it to the house of the lord i'm not crazy i'm not crazy i'm not crazy turn to somebody and say you're not crazy for giving all you've got to jesus you're not crazy if you follow me jesus said if you serve others you're not crazy if you realize that we have just a small window of time in what we do for christ and god's purpose is all that will matter you're not crazy if you ever pull off this property and you feel worn out and tired because you spent hours helping and giving and making something happen that changed a life for all eternity you're not crazy to all of the altar teams and greeters and to all of the car parkers and to all of the children's ministry and to all of the camera people and to all of the sound people and music people we're not crazy ushers we're not crazy we're not crazy i i think what happens when we all exercise our gift we make the kind of ministry that you've seen on these screens happen here and around the world i went i went the other week in gainesville one of my daughters wanted to go to one of the feedings we had a we had a wealthy businessman in the church who's in poultry and he said i got 180 000 pounds i don't know if you know chicken that's 40 pound boxes of chicken 180 000 pounds of chicken and i want to give it all away he said i don't have any trucks to transport it but i'll but you worry about that and so we called one of the men in the church that owns a 18-wheeler uh he's got all these trucks going all over the place and we called him up and we said well uh there's a real spiritual brother in the church that gave chicken but we can't get it to the people because we don't have any trucks and we were wondering do you have any trucks that the lord hath need of thee and he jumped right in he said not only that but i got truck drivers because they're not going anywhere without the truck drivers and he said i'll pay them out of my pocket to get the chicken to all of you six campuses and and and i know you guys have been doing this the same thing throughout the holidays and i think did we get a truck of chicken out here has it already come you already had it good good it was it went well it was good chicken too wasn't it so so there so so so there it is it came out we sent it on u-haul amen that's not the drugs he had but we did the best we could with that one same and somebody we made the youth pastor drive it out amen but i went with my daughter and we for two and a half hours i had forgotten it been so long handed out chicken boxes put it in the back of trunks they were lined up as far as your eyes could see and see these little families and little children turn around and know that they would have food for the holidays i got more out of that than a new car a new house new outfit you you you try serving one time and you'll become addicted you're not crazy we're not crazy our king is coming again we're not crazy for getting involved in the work of the lord and i'd like for you to stand all over this room and i'd like for you to throw your arms up toward heaven from the front to the back in the overflow and i would like for you to say lord you're worthy of it all you're worthy of it all of any and everything i want to give you my gifts i have a personality or i have a skill or i have a talent but here it is here it is i want to recommit everything i am for your kingdom and your purpose [Music] sing it to him church [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] this beautiful signature [Music] so so we we uh [Music] we heard about a little organization called stork and they'll put it up in a minute when i asked for it but what they do is they have a mercedes truck engine diesel that are those engines are good for i i'm told 800 million miles and they put ultrasounds on the thing and they put all kinds of it's a it's a women's clinic on wheels wherever it goes every kind of test that women need to save their lives to help to find out if they're pregnant they can hear the heartbeat of a child and then for the next two years not not not just that moment but if they decide to keep literally what they will do with these with these beautiful you put it up what they'll do with this thing is pull up sometimes across the street from an abortion clinic and instead of cursing the darkness they just turn on the light they put a little tent out and young people sit out there and say after you've gone in there or before you go in there or if you've gone in there and you're not sure we're here to show you an alternative and for the next two years we'll walk with you and pay your bills and help you get all of the vitamins and all of the things that you need for you and your child for for the next two years it's a two-year commitment and in order to do that we have to buy the truck so here's what we're doing this year in georgia we're going to buy now that's just the van i want the truck that's just the van get the big one that's the one we're buying because that one's 800 and something with all the technology you would not believe all they can do on there with all the technology it's 800 something thousand dollars so we're gonna buy our first one there our second one will be on the west coast in a little place called california give me a big amen somebody now here's the beauty of it we will we will hire a full-time nurse and a truck driver and they will go all over that whole state that you literally can schedule it in city after city after city it's a full-time two positions that we're gonna hire we're gonna we're gonna perfect it and figure it all out in georgia this year then we're coming here next year but we're gonna get it all right out there and and when i say next year 2023 but we're going to do that in 2022 it takes about nine months to even get the thing built brand new and we're going to do that we're going to save babies we're gonna you can't do everything you can't save everybody but you can save one if we can save one if we can save ten if we can save twenty it's worth it all and while we were mining let me finish let me finish and so while we were minding our own business and and and we got a phone call two or three weeks ago in georgia and they said now pastor franklin we've heard about the ministry blah blah blah and uh we are a ministry called uh behind prison doors or something like that i can't remember exactly but god god behind bars that's it god behind bars and it ain't the kind of bar you're used to i'm talking about bars but he's behind those bars too amen [Music] and they said we do not have any church in the state of georgia that is shooting their service live into the federal prison system we've done it in other states but we haven't done it in georgia would you have any interest it's going to it's going to cost several hundred thousand dollars for the equipment all this plus we'll have to have a pastor plus we'll send a team in every sunday and what do you think we said yes or no we said yes yes so i'm here to announce that our next campus our number eight campus will not be in irvine or in atlanta or in texas or in miami it's gonna be behind the state penitentiary in georgia and we're gonna go live into the oh come on and shout somebody so so so the thought the thought hit me real heavy well we'll figure all that out and partner with these people who've done amazing things and and i believe we'll be doing that everywhere we've got a campus at least because you have to have the teams to go in and that has to come out of the congregation because somebody has to get out of the bleachers and into the game but but but here's the other thing i thought well you know if we can get a bus that saves babies in georgia next year and then the next year we'll go on and place the order in 2022 for our west coast bus why don't we go on tv since we're on tv everywhere why don't we go in there and just start checking off the states and get a bus in every state across america can you dream with me or or do you think god's so small that there's no way he could he can do it church he can do it and it starts with the little things being faithful with the little things and you know what if a preacher's got a vision that's going to cost a lot he's going to get the money god is through somebody and i tell you who's going to get it through anointed business people who say i know my gift and when i when i exercise my gift i'm going to support the kingdom of god [Music] bye foreign [Music] you

Channel: Free Chapel OC

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Length: 44min 2sec (2642 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 28 2021