For individuals, I kind of keep sliding over there and giving some
individual stuff along with the church stuff.
And I hope you don't mind that. But purpose, for instance,
all Christian churches have the same purpose. That's just a reminder.
We're all supposed to advance the kingdom, and it's in the book.
We listed the ways that's supposed to be done. It's right there in the beginning of pages.
We talked about that. All Christians have the same purpose.
We're all supposed to be doing the same thing.
Which is advancing and promoting the kingdom of God.
That's just the general way of saying it.
But we're all supposed to be doing that. It's not just a few
Christians who are supposed to be doing that. Every Christian is supposed to be doing that.
Subpurpose to me is the clarifying factor.
Our sub-purpose is what
makes us who we are.
The big picture of purpose, we're all going the same direction promoting
the kingdom. Sub-purpose is how God asks
us to do that.
If you've noticed anything, God doesn't duplicate
anything at all.
There's no two flowers the same. There's no two leaves the same.
There's no two blades of grass the same. Everything is
custom-made. There's only one.
The way God uses you and how
He wants you to promote the kingdom
and do what He's asking you to do in advancing the kingdom.
How He wants you to do it is going to be different
than anybody else on earth.
And there's so many factors that go into that we're not going to take the time.
But not only
affects your occupation or your job,
you're working in the realm or in the field you're working in
if you're working in the one that was in your heart.
If you're just doing something for money, well then that's different. But if you're doing
what was in your heart to do, that was put there by God.
Of the five full gifts, we talked
about this a little bit, of the five full gifts, how God blends that in you
with the nine gifts of the Spirit
with the gifts of Romans 12 is going to be
unique from anybody else on earth.
The things that are priorities to you
are going to be different than a lot of people. You'll find some the same, but a lot of
people are going to be different.
So as individuals, our sub-purpose defines who we are.
How we live, our goals, our dreams, our focus, our everything
because that's how he wants us to promote the
kingdom. And it has nothing to do
with, well I'm not in full-time ministry so I can't
promote the kingdom. That has nothing to do with it.
Nothing. We are
all ministers. That's what Paul calls us. We're all
ministers. He just has you doing it the way he wants
you to do it. Has me doing it the way he wants me
to do it. And everybody's different. And this is God.
Now the big focus, the big vision,
the big purpose for all Christians is going to the world and make disciples of all people.
Now there's a lot of subheadings underneath that, but that's why we're here.
Once you're saved, that's our marching orders.
Okay? So that stays the same. And then how God
does us? God does it in the plumbing world, God does it in the electrical world,
God does it in the entertainment world, God does it in the secular
education realm. God wants to be in everything
so he handcrafts people to plug them in there.
So that they're ministering where they're at.
And see that's why federal government, which by the way
at the moment from my perspective is not really running on a godly basis.
State government might even be a step down from that.
That's why they don't want
you ministering
in any way, shape, or form at your job
in anything that has to do with public like
universities or schools or
anything. They want to squelch all that. Why? Because they're ungodly.
It's back it up. It's still the war
between the devil hates God. And the devil just
is like a thorn in God's saddle. He's always
there trying to stop what God wants to do. So it makes
perfect sense that he wouldn't want you saying anything at work.
He needs to shut that down because you're a minister. He can't let you do that.
See if you pan back and see it, it's like oh
so that's what I'm supposed to do. And that's how it's supposed to flow through me.
So we talked about purpose and sub-purpose quite a bit. We talked about word of life
sub-purpose. And
I won't go back and review that much. It was the last message so you just have to go back
and get it. But the way churches
are designed to grow
is God pulls people together who are
like-hearted. Or have like
goals and beliefs. And he will, you know, not just this
church but churches, he will gather the
people who that's their heart. That's
where he wants them to go. And of course, every denomination, every church thinks
the same thing. Everybody should be like us. I think
that. And it's like man everybody should be like
us. Because that's what's in our heart. So
he will gather and continue to gather to the
churches people of like vision, people of like
heart. People who want to accomplish the same thing. Now
as times get rough, you need more
of a church that operates in the supernatural and the power of God.
And that is our goal. That's part of what God's asked us to do.
It's part of our sub-purpose. It makes us different than others.
Had some questions come in. I'll just
answer a couple of them. This deals with individual purpose
and sub-purpose. Why do I end up with a certain kind of
people always coming into my life?
And that's not always just a positive statement.
Or why do I end up always dealing with
a certain kind of problem or a certain kind of job?
Even at work, in my career or whatever, one person said, it just seems
like I always end up cleaning up the mess.
That's me. They look at me and say, you go take care of that.
Why? Because
that is what you're good at.
It's part of your sub-purpose and it's the
anointing you operate in and people will attract to
that. Employers will attract to that. Employers who
can see they have an employee who's good at something will
shovel those things that they're good at to that employee.
Well, why do I, I don't even like
what I'm good at. That's not the point.
That's what God made you good at.
So perspective here is everything. You might as well embrace it
and go with it. Because
you get away from what you're good at, you're going to flounder.
Isn't it true? There's some things that every one
of us are just good at and people see that and they attract to it.
Why do I always have people dumping their problems on
me? Because the anointing in you is telling them
you have an answer that will help them and they don't even know it.
They're just drawn to you.
I don't want to hear everybody's problems but I can be standing in Walmart and I can't
get out of aisle 3 because some stranger walks up and just dumps the whole load.
My husband and I are fighting and it looks like we're going to get a divorce.
Why me? Why do I get stuck with this all the time?
Because that's who God made you
to be. Rather than fight it
get in step with the Holy Spirit and say
this is my ministry. This is how God wants to
use me. So let's get into agreement and do the best we
can with it rather than, well I'm going to go shopping at midnight so there's nobody
in there so that don't happen anymore.
No, do what you're designed to do. That's why they're being attracted to you. It's your
sub-purpose. It's the anointing on you.
It's just the way it works. That's the answer.
Second question kind of goes the same flow.
Why am I drawn to a certain kind of occupation?
Why am I drawn to certain churches?
Why am I drawn to certain ministries? Why am I drawn to certain friends?
Because it all works in
with why you're here. People who
minister in the same vein will be drawn together
to flow and promote that aspect of the kingdom of God
and it'll be much more powerful if they draw together
and do that. Not everybody is drawn to
caretaking. Let's go with caretaking.
There are certain people who are just
gifted at helping and caring for other people.
They're just gifted in it. And I am not one of them.
Mary tells me, she says, I hope
I never get sick because if you got to take care of me
that's going to be a long life.
Because you just don't think that realm. I don't.
It's just not me. But there are people
it's just like it flows out of them. That's not coincidence.
That's how God designed and created them.
Others like
them if they will draw together and work together
huge things can be done for the kingdom.
But what happens is many times that drawing together
that becomes your circle of friends.
Or at least a big part of it.
When we decide who's going to be our friends on the basis
of our personality and likes and so forth
often we stifle why we're here.
Have you ever noticed people who prophesy like to run
together? People who are used
in healing like to run together. They hang out
together. They minister together. They like to go to the same conferences. They
run together. People who
will just go to the secular world.
Computer people like to hang out with computer people.
Because it stimulates their thinking
and it's like, yeah, I never thought of that.
It makes them better as a person. And a lot of times computer people
have a certain way of thinking.
Even the world recognizes that.
That's why Best Buy has the geek squad.
There is a certain way people who are computer people think. And it's not wrong.
It's not bad. It's how God wired them.
And you get... and typically it's not a real social
person. It's just not how God wired them.
Now you get over here for the party animal.
They don't like to hang out with computer people.
It's like they're flying two different planes here. Well, that's okay.
You don't have to hang out with them. You need to concentrate on why God
made you and flow in that realm. And group up
that way. If we have friends
on the basis of ministry, we're more than likely doing
what God asked us to do. If we have friends
based on other reasons, we're probably stifling
what God asked us to do. Subpurpose to me is the most
revealing part of this whole book. It's once you get
purpose and sub-purpose, the rest kind of just hangs on it. And
the point we're going to talk about this morning just kind of hangs on it.
Are you able to bring up that little picture and the handout
if you can't, that's fine. But bring it up.
Because I wanted to... what we're going into this morning, if you look in your
book where we got through page 17,
where we're going this morning is page
18. That little drawing there.
Once you have the top two, you're our general purpose, which
is all the same for churches and for people. And your sub-purpose, which makes us
individuals. That's totally different for everybody.
Might come in a general heading, but how everybody's use is different.
Assignments, hang on that.
Assignments being projects God gives us. And those are ongoing. Some can be for a lifetime.
Some can be short range. We'll talk about that starting next Sunday.
Mandates or commands, they hang on, who am I? And what am I supposed to
accomplish? He will command us accordingly. But the thing I want to talk about
this morning is core values. It's like the backbone that
runs through everything and holds it together.
Page 18, go there with me if you would. I'll read a few things
and then we'll just start talking about it. Letter A, core values
are what hold us steady in the face of adversity, opposition, trouble, pain,
failure, success, increased influence, prosperity,
praise and honor, etc. I mean you could just keep listening.
Our core values as believers are our inner
convictions that we are never to compromise
on. We can't let ourselves compromise on them
no matter what may happen in life. We can't compromise.
They are our inner
stability guidance system. There are our gyro...
what do they call gyroscope? Yeah. I had gyrocopter
in my mind. It's like, no, that's not right. There are inner gyroscope.
They hold us on task. I've heard people say this over and over. Money
changes people. Boy, once they start getting some
money, they change. That's because they don't have core values.
Money should change nothing.
Oh, success! You know, I knew them
what they were like before they were successful, and now they got a successful company
and they're running with successful people, and they're not the same person anymore.
That's because they don't have core values
to govern that. See, when we don't have something
that locks us down and stabilizes us,
we tend to wash with whatever
direction we're at in life at that point.
People get, you know, I've had this told me, of course, in the praying
for people who are sick and going to hospitals and nursing homes, things like that.
And I've heard this over and over. Once people get
sick and they're hurting, boy, you can take
a person who's really nice and they can just get mean.
Well, I've seen that. You know
why that is? Lack of core values.
Core values say there's some things I will never do.
It doesn't make any difference to circumstances, doesn't make any difference
to success, doesn't make any difference to failure, doesn't make
any difference to the problems, the troubles, the pain, doesn't make any difference
to certain things I will never do. And there are certain things that I will
always do no matter what's happening in my life.
They hold us solid. They hold us stable.
There are inner convictions. We cannot
compromise on them. Now, God will refine them over the years
through His Word, but we can't compromise on them and just throw them out.
Letter B, the middle there. Purpose, sub-purpose.
Getting there is a walk of faith. You know, we don't know everything
right away. We learn. We mature. We grow. We make adjustments.
It's the core values that
the Holy Spirit drops into our hearts as we're living for God
that keep us on track as we're learning, as we're
growing, as we're making adjustments. These things hold
us steady. Let us see, it's
difficult to categorize this summary and put it in a few points and say, these are our core
values. So, I'll read here. Let me try
by saying our core values at Word of Life are the scriptural elements
that stand out in value to
fulfill the vision, the purpose, the sub-purpose of Word of Life.
Everything in Scripture is profitable, but there are
certain principles that God has pointed out that we'll need to give special
attention to for this ministry, for this church, for what God's trying to do
here. They must remain an integral part
of what we do in order to fulfill
our mission. As a church, and the same thing is true for
you as a person. Of course, a church is nothing but a whole
conglomeration of persons. So, if the people are solid, the
church is typically solid. If the people are all over the charts,
you're going to have trouble holding that church. It's going to want to wonder
and go into all kinds of different directions. It's the core
values that keep us on track. Certain things
we will do. Certain things we will never do. These are core
values. When we're dealing with, okay,
here is what God wants us to accomplish. Here is where he wants us to go.
We see how God wants to use us.
There's many different ways to get there.
Your core values will determine a big part
of that. You can be
a business owner and become a successful
business owner in a godly way
or an ungodly way.
And since we're in an ungodly system, see in God's system
once we're out of this mess and we get back into God's system
ungodly ways don't prosper.
In fact, he's just going to end them all and I'm good with that. But we're in
an ungodly system. So ungodly ways work.
People will lie. People will steal.
People will cheat. People will take advantage of other
people. People will down talk other people.
I've had business guys trying to sell me on
you. I want to do the job for you. And I say, well, what about so-and-so?
He seems to be out of, oh, so-and-so, and they'll just rip them up.
You know what that is? It's either bad
core values or a lack of them. They have no
problem ripping somebody else up. They're definitely not godly core values.
So the thing that keeps us on track
as we're moving through life toward what God wants us to do
is our core values. So as a church, number one is the word
of God. This also is true
for individuals. As a person going through life, the
number one thing that will hold you on track is God's word. Period.
There is nothing above that. It's the basis for all
our beliefs, doctrines, and life. It's the infallible
standard we measure everything against.
Compromising on God's word is
never an option. Now learning more,
understanding more, tweaking some things,
yeah, well, that's going to happen all our life. But compromising
on it, no. So it comes back to
why do we do what we do? Well, I can show you in the word why we do what we do.
As a church.
That should be true for us as individuals.
Why do you do what you do? You should be able to find
at some place in the word in seed form and then give me some spoken words
that the Holy Spirit told you and said this is how I want you to live.
Which is down a little bit in core
values. But number one, if the word says this
is what should be, then this is what should be. Period.
We're never going to move from that. Or if the word says
this is what shouldn't be, then we're never going to get
involved with that. We're not going to move from it.
For instance, I'll just give you a simple one.
The word says we should avoid or stay back from all
ungodliness. Well, I hope a church would at least follow
that one. You know, individuals sometimes struggle with it, but
at least I hope a church would follow that to where if something's ungodly
we don't incorporate that into the church.
Then why do so many Christian churches celebrate Halloween?
What in the world? How in the world can you find anything godly in Halloween?
See, for us it's a core value. That whole holiday
is evil. You just study it, study its origins, study what it stands
for. It is purely demonic. One hundred
percent it's evil. We will never celebrate Halloween
that word of life as long as I'm in charge.
It's a core value. And you say, well, why don't we celebrate it here?
Well, you just told me a thousand things about you. With the question
apparently you don't understand and a lot of times young Christians don't.
But if you've been saved 20 and 30 years and you're asking me why we don't celebrate Halloween
for your grandkids, you should be further along than that.
Just saying.
It's a core value. The thing is demonic.
And if you haven't noticed, the devil is opposed to God.
They're opposites. Why would we
who are trying to serve God with all our heart grab something from the devil
while it's fun? Well, I don't care what it is. It's wrong.
It's a core value. We won't go there. And it's just
an example. What the Scripture says is the way it is.
And
it's who we are.
Page 19 talks about full gospel a little bit there and how we see the Scripture there.
And there's people who don't see it that way. And you know what? It's between them and God.
I won't answer for them. They won't answer for me.
You just go live how you want to live. We'll live how we're supposed to live.
And in the end, we'll all find out we're standing in front of them.
I'm just trying to do the best I can stand
in front of him the right way. So middle of page 19 under letter D
the second little line there. The emphasis on preaching, teaching
and living what the Scriptures the Bible has to say is a
big deal in this church. The word
is a premium. And we will spend
a bulk of time on it every service
unless we're specifically directed otherwise. But as an overall thing
if you want a 15 minute nice message, you're in the wrong
church. The word
is a core value here. And it's
who we are. It's what we are. That'll
never change. So when we're
moving toward what God wants us to do, I've had people say
you know, you preach so stinking long.
And sometimes I do.
They said, you know, if you shut that down, our culture, our society
doesn't like 45 or 45 minutes an hour long message anymore.
Our culture likes the
let's do a 15, 20, 30 minute thing max, but 15, 20 is even better.
And just give them one good principle.
We would grow.
Sorry, not our core value.
Our core value is the word
is everything.
And it's going to receive the most attention.
Well, I don't like it. I'll go someplace else. Well, it's your choice. It's America.
That's fine.
But you're not going to change our vision or our core values
because, well, it would produce more people.
Yeah, but what kind of people are we going to produce?
A bunch of babies who can't understand the word at all?
Got a lot of numbers, but you got no depth. You got no discipleship. You got no
you got no maturity.
It's an example of a core value. Number two,
the freedom and movement of the Holy Spirit is one of our core values.
It deals with Jesus' last name,
the Christ, meaning the anointing. And it is
the anointing and the moving of the Holy Spirit is the thing the
anti-Christ spirit, which was started back
in John said, in 1 John he said
the anti-Christ spirit is already here. It started back
there and it's just gaining momentum until the end when it culminates.
The anti-Christ spirit, or the anti-anointing spirit
is 100% against the freedom and the movement of the Holy Spirit
because the Holy Spirit is the one who anoints.
So to me this is a no-brainer for a core value. You have
to go with the movement of the Holy Spirit because the
anti-Christ spirit is against it. I mean
why would we be against that? There's only one against that. It's the anti-Christ
spirit. So we got it before it.
Well I want to be for it pastor, I just don't want it to get out of hand.
Things can get weird, you know.
I know, I've been there. I've seen them get weird.
Let me remind you of a principle.
When you're measuring
something, now this is presuming you're close enough
to God, you can sense Him.
If we haven't developed to that point to where we can sense God, then
this won't work for you. Then we need to grow more.
But if you're close enough to God to where you can sense Him,
when something's happening don't pay attention to
your head or what's coming in your eyes or what's coming in your
ears. Listen to the Holy Spirit
who lives in you. If He is at
peace with what is going on
we should be too. We should be at
peace too. If He's upset with it,
then we need to stop it. That is the
only way to make a spiritual judgment like Jesus talked about in John 7.
He says you're making all kinds of judgments but you're making all the wrong ones because you're not
making spiritual judgments. You're not tapping into the
spirit to discern this. You're tapping into your head,
you're thinking your emotions, what will people think, your reasoning,
and Paul says all that's demonic based. If that's where you go to
hear God, you're going to be following demons before long. You have
to tap into the Holy Spirit inside you. So when
something's getting odd to you, that might be odd to
you and not to me. Might be odd to me, not to you. I don't know.
It depends upon our backgrounds. What we've seen, what we've, you know,
I've seen some weird stuff happen in church
and it's like, yeah, I didn't like it. It felt wrong
to me at the time and I was young. So that
it's not like it can't happen. It can happen. And if it does
happen, it's the people in charge responsibility to try to grab that. And if we
miss it and we make a mistake, then we need to come back and apologize and say I missed that one and it shouldn't have went that way.
So let's just deal with that and throw it off the
table because that wasn't God. But
okay, I think he'd be
okay with this. I'll give you an example from Open Heavens.
Wonderful
Open Heavens. God used
Igor powerfully. Just wonderful. I have no complaints with Igor
whatsoever. But he's a very exuberant man.
And it's okay. That's who God
made him to be. I mean, very
very out there. And that's how God uses him. And that's okay.
But that first night in the prayer line
he got a little too pushy. Not intentionally, but in his
exuberance. You don't have to take people by the head
and push them back. And he didn't realize he was doing it.
Or I noticed sometimes he grabbed them in the back of the head and he pulled forward
and people were down and I knew he was pulling on them because his fingers went white.
He put pressure on them. And that's okay.
But not here.
If God's moving you don't have to physically cause something
to happen. And I thought, well I'm not going to say anything
in front of it. I think we have mature enough people. Because some of you looked
at me like, what's he doing? And it's like
I got it. I'm just not going to embarrass the guy.
He's ministering. He's in the spirit. He's just not
guarding himself. Enough.
So afterwards I talked to him about it.
I said, I don't know if you realize you're doing it or not, but you're putting a lot of physical
pressure on people when you're praying for them. And if they have a bad neck you're
going to make it worse. Unless God helps you.
I mean, you just can't do that to people.
And he said, I'm doing that? I didn't realize I was doing that.
I was so into, I want to get the answer to them, I didn't realize I was physically
engaging. And you notice the rest of the meetings. He didn't do it at all.
So
to me, when I measured my spirit, that didn't feel right.
So then it's my job to say something.
That's not my job to undermine somebody, but it is my job to say
something so it doesn't go on all week. And I did. And he was very
receptive. He's really good that way. He's very receptive. Very
very teachable and humble in those ways.
And he made the adjustment. Life went on. That is what I'm talking about.
Measure with your spirit.
You could watch and say, wow, people are being touched. And they were being touched.
So he's got to be doing everything right. Well, he was doing 99% right.
But there was one thing that just did not feel right to me.
In here. Not in here. In here.
And we talked about it, made the adjustment. That's what I'm talking about.
When you say, well, there's something goofy going on. According to what?
Your past teaching. What you think should be
happening. How you're reasoning this out. Maybe somebody
has disgruntled input they gave you. Something goofy is going on.
The only way to measure that is measure it in your spirit.
Does this feel peaceful and right?
Or does this like, yeah, that ain't right.
Follow me? Oh, dear Lord.
Must be all sleeping already.
But the freedom and the movement of the
Holy Spirit is strongly emphasized here. It's one of our core values.
We want the gifts of the Spirit
to flow. We want to know if people are having visions. We want to know if
there's a prophecy. We want to know these things. But one of the things we
do to keep it from getting goofy is come tell me first. Or tell
Mary first. And then if our
heart agrees, then we'll let you give it.
Because when things get goofy is when you just let anybody say anything
at any time. Then later you got to go back and correct stuff because it's wrong.
And now you got people's feelings hurt. Then clicks or groups
formal. I thought it was right. I thought it was God. No, that wasn't God. You can
prevent all of it with a little bit of prevention. Out of prevention is worth
pound of cure. Do we want the moving of the Spirit? Freedom of the Spirit?
Absolutely. But yes, there is a way to guide it. There is
a way. So if some of you are saying, why does everybody check in with you all the time before they're allowed
to say something? So it doesn't get weird.
Thank you for the one amen.
Bottom of page 19
we speak in tongues. We prophesy. We give
message in tongues. Interpretations. We sing in the Spirit. We pray in the
Spirit. We pray for healings and miracles. We praise and worship
as if we feel he is directing us. And anything else we feel
he's leading us to, including the nine gifts of the Spirit. The emphasis
on the moving of the Holy Spirit in our services is a big deal.
It is a core value.
It's big to us. Now, some people don't
like it because whatever reason. That's okay.
Like I said, this church may not be for everybody.
But I see it in Scripture really clearly.
I see it in people's lives
who are successful in living out the kingdom.
It's a big deal. It's scriptural. Letter B
last half of it. Everything the Scripture has to say about the working of the Holy Spirit
will be encouraged at word of life. So now here is a very important point to bring up
right here. A pastoral change
can change everything.
Because the church will follow the way the pastor leads.
And I know people tell me, they say
I'm at such and such church to make a difference and we're trying to change it.
And I'll tell them this. Unless you change the pastor and depending
upon how the church government is, the pastor and the board, you won't change
the church. It's going to flow down.
So you have to talk to your pastor and if
he's following the board, you have to talk to the board.
Or there will be no changes. So
I'll ask him. Do you think the pastor and the board is ever going to change what you're there to influence?
No, they'll never change. Then you're wasting your time.
Because as soon as you try promoting something, they're going to shut you down.
You're wasting your time. You must find a church that goes with your
heart. Pastoral leadership especially
makes or breaks everything on the vision
or where the church is going. That's why
right now we're in a real crucial season
and we'll talk about short-term, intermediate-term and long-term vision.
It's not a long-term vision. It's an intermediate-term
vision. We're in a very crucial season because as time goes on
there's going to have to be a handing on of the baton or
pastoral leadership change. All we need to do is get
someone in here who is uncomfortable with the moving of the spirit and this church will
totally change. They won't allow it. They won't promote it.
They won't introduce it. All we need is to get somebody in here who
does not want praise and worship to be a free expression
that comes out of people's hearts.
And everything will change. And there's churches out
there where praise and worship is entertainment. You have three, four songs
everybody's sitting there eating coffee, eating donuts, whatever
and nobody's standing, nobody's praising
they're just enjoying Christian music. Well that's between them and God.
That's not for me to tell them that's right or wrong. It's between them and God.
Bring that here. Everything will change.
So some of these core values have to align
with the leadership, the
staff, especially the pastoral leadership, has
to align. Or you get this unity, you get division.
And worst of all if you hand it over to them and it's not
an agreement or alignment, it shuts down everything that God was trying to accomplish
through that church. So it's really crucial
to find like-minded people
to put into these leadership positions because if you
don't, they will abandon certain core values because it's not
in them. And when you abandon a core value, it's the thing that holds
you on track. You abandon it, you're going to change. You're going to wander one way or
the other. It's the stake that holds us in place.
Walking in love, that's pretty much no-brainer.
First and second commandment, I think we can all work on that the rest of our lives.
Service to others, number four on page
20, meeting the needs of others as an expression of love.
For those of you that work in the secular world, which is
most of us, here's the term that you use for service to others.
It's called customer service.
That's what it's called. Customer service
in the business world is serving other people
and they're supposed to do it in a loving way.
Not everybody does.
I mean, there's been times at Walmart I've had people, apparently
are having a bad day, or
you're going through a drive-thru someplace and you get a hold
of one who is serving you, their customer service
and they're not doing it in love. They're grumpy. They're mean.
I've got examples. I won't go there.
Customer service.
We are to minister to each other
and serve them out of love.
The best correlation I can give to that is do we have good customer service
with each other or not?
Are we serving each other? Scripture says love
prefers the other person. That's customer
in front of the service. Well, why would I treat them better?
Because you're supposed to love them. Which means
you prefer them.
Who was it that was saying somebody were
sharing?
Anyway, they had some gathering
where there was a meal and people were lined up to serve themselves.
Some of you will remember this because you probably heard it too. Somebody shared.
I think it was here. And some old grandmas wanted to get to the front of the line
so they just kind of elbowed their ways in
and got to the front of the line.
And this was a Christian setting. Was that you?
No.
Just checking.
Dale said that?
One of the founders at a college. It was Founders Week.
Now it's coming back to me. It's Founders Week. And the people who give all the money were there
to see a lot of money. Were there to see how the colleges run.
And they felt entitled. They didn't have to wait in line at the cafeteria.
And the long line they just kind of shoved in and pushed their way into the line
up at the front and this, that and the other. See, that's just bad customer service.
That's not preferring each other
in love.
Grandma felt entitled because I give a lot of money to this college.
I have the right to go to the front. You selfish
arrogant thing. You're not entitled
because you give money. But see, that is an American
thing. Oh, don't upset them. They give a lot of money.
Let them do what they want. Well, sooner or later
they figure that out. Well, I can do what I want because I give money.
Now, we're still supposed to walk in love
toward each other. Page 21, number five. Obedience.
The second thing we strive to do
if love is first, the second thing is obedience because
obedience is the indicator of how much we love. And the Scripture is given right there.
We have to learn to obey. It's a core value.
It just can't happen in your
personal life. It just can't happen in this church where it's like
I know God wants us to do that, but we're going to do this.
Cannot ever happen. It's a core value.
Well, if we do what we think God wants us to do, it's not going to
turn out as well as this. And that's always the excuse. One way
or another. It's just not going to turn out as well. Like we know more
than God. We might see the next few months and say, yeah, that won't
turn out good in the next few months, but we don't see the next 10, 20, 30 years.
We will obey
what he asks us to do. There is no option. There's no negotiation.
We will obey what he asks us
to do. Period. It's a core value.
And that's what holds you solid as
you're going through transitional change and so forth, whether in your personal life
or in this church. Hope and faith. Of course, you got to have hope before you have faith
and without faith, you can't even please God. So we put a big emphasis on faith
because we want to please God. When I get there, I really
am looking for him to say, well done. I really want that.
And if I want that, it says in Hebrews 11, 6,
you can't even please God without faith. So if I want that,
I better really pay attention to faith because that's
what pleases him. And if he's not pleased, he's not going to say good job.
So there's a huge emphasis
on faith. Do we always get the answers to everything we're after?
No. But we're trying. And according to Hebrews 11,
he will reward us for trying.
He doesn't just reward results.
I don't think that's news to anybody here. He is a
rewarder of them who diligently
seek him. He rewards
effort. We don't always have to
hit a home run to please him.
In fact, there's times we strike out. But we're
seeking to hit that thing. And we're trying to hit that thing.
And as long as we are after it,
he's pleased with that to the point. He says, I'll reward you for trying.
Intimately knowing him
and him knowing us.
Number seven, it's a core value.
Letter A, there's a difference in knowing God about God and knowing God. Knowing about God is
referring to his religion. Knowing him is referred to as a relationship.
We're called to the relationship end.
Everything we do is to help everyone
as much as we can influence.
The most important thing we can do is
help people to learn how to know him.
Paul said in Philippians, he said, nothing
can stand in the way of getting to know him.
You have to abandon everything. So in other words, this thing of loving
God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength is directly tied
to getting to know him. Those two must go together
because Paul, Jesus said, you got to love God with all your heart, soul, mind
and strength. Paul says you have to be willing to abandon everything
to get to know him. Not know about
him. Know him. And once you
know him, he knows you. And this is important. Because Jesus said
I don't know who these people are.
Away from me. Depart. Only those who do the will of my father will enter into
heaven. This is Matthew 7, I believe.
Yeah, I don't know you. Well, it would be good if he knew us.
And then they gave reasons why he should know him. You know, we cast out
demons. We prophesied. We did wonderful things in your needs. I don't know you. Get out of here.
So we need to get
to know him. And in process of that he
gets to know us.
Praise and worship is an intimate expression of relationship.
It's supposed to be.
Now I grew up singing
hymnals. Towards the end, they sang more. Well, they sang courses all the time, but
they were German courses. Because I grew up in more of a German community.
And the service was more English. The songs
we sang were English. But if they go into a chorus, most of the time
it was a German chorus. And
that was their culture. It's who they were. It wasn't good, bad, or otherwise. But
to me, church music was hymnals.
I got news for you. It is really hard
to get intimate with God in a hymn song. A hymnal.
The best part about hymnals is I would practice
singing soprano, alto, tenor, and
bass. I'd switch. Every
line, I try to sing a different...
And I'm sure God wasn't impressed.
But it's like
it's really hard to get intimate with God, singing hymns.
Now when they switched into some
choruses, and once I was in high school, then we switched more to
English. And some of the older people were very
disgruntled. But the pastor said,
I honor you. I honor that. We can do that at certain services.
But on Sunday mornings, when visitors come,
singing only German choruses does not attract
them. So the whole thing switched, because a pastoral
change took place. And in my mind, as a high schooler, that was a good switch.
Because he started singing more contemporary choruses
and putting them in. Well, now I could start getting a little bit more intimate
with God. But intimacy with God and knowing
Him ties directly into praise and worship. Man, that
just kicks the door open for intimacy. Prayer
lines kick the door open for intimacy with God.
If we're not just doing a methodical, go down the line and just pray for somebody.
But actually try to be led by the spirit, etc. Really
opens the door for intimacy. Page 22, number 8,
another core value. Our whole motivation is to please God. Three
words. Why do we do what we do? Because we're trying to please Him. And we see
it in Scripture. The Word is first. And the Holy Spirit led us
and moved us that direction. Well, why didn't you just stop it? Because we're trying to please
Him. Not you.
Paul said, if I'm going to try to please men, I'm no longer pleasing God.
And see, that's the dance leadership has. That's the dance praise groups have.
That's how do we follow the Spirit enough
that He goes, I love this.
And the naysayers
don't go, it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
It's a dance. You try to work that. You try to bring people
with you while you please Him and get intimate with Him. Number
9, that is a core value, because that is the only thing that can destroy a church
is this unity. It is the only thing that can destroy a church.
You get people fighting amongst themselves. The Holy Spirit backs out and it's over.
That is the best way to say it. It will just be over.
So, we will stay in unity. Even if you
need to find a church that you
can be in unity with.
Yeah, this is good. Someone sent a text in. They said, mutual respect
for each other is necessary. Exactly. Young and old also
recognize the elder may not have the strength or may have
may be in pain. And the elder needs to recognize
just because you don't have the strength or in pain, we
make everything center on you.
Because there's younger generations who are in a focus too.
It goes both ways. But yeah, we shouldn't
run over them and they shouldn't run over them.
It goes both ways. Flows both ways.
The anointing, we talked about that some. It's self-explanatory there.
Page 23, the supernatural.
When we moved up here, the Lord said, I want you to build whatever is
going to happen in Minnesota. I want you to build it on two things.
He told me this coming through Nebraska, through those sand hills going north from
North Platte up to through Valentine and up to I-90.
Coming right through there, he said, I want you to build this on two things.
The word and the supernatural.
So the supernatural has to become a core value.
Supernatural has to be taking place here or we're off of what God's
asking us to do. What do you mean by supernatural?
Well, obviously the gifts of the Spirit, if they're done correctly, are supernatural.
Dreams, visions are supernatural.
People feeling the tangible presence of
God is supernatural. Healing's
miracles supernatural.
Supernatural has to take place here.
What happened last night at TBO?
There was a visiting lady there that Kelvin and
Brian prophesied over just totally laid her
flat, so to speak, emotionally. She was doing everything she could
to hold it together, just weeping and sobbing and carrying on.
Why? Because what they were saying was right on.
That's supernatural. We didn't know her.
They didn't know her. That's supernatural.
And some people, you know, I've heard this more
than once, why don't I like Kelvin Woods? He speaks in tongues too much.
Well, I tell you what, once you
can prophesy with the accuracy that man prophesies with,
you can come to me and complain about it. Until then, shut up.
Well, I just don't think it's right. Well, I don't
care what you think. The fruit is there. Hello?
If God didn't think it was right, he'd be missing everything.
For those of you that were in prayer, what he said
over what Brian and what Kelvin said over me in the church,
they had no clue. Exactly, they hit it. Exactly.
Oh, they pray in tongues too much. I don't give a rip.
You can't produce godly fruit
via ungodliness. Apparently
God's okay with it. Or he quit using them.
Isn't that the truth?
So the supernatural has to happen.
It has to. It's who we are.
Corporate and individual prayer. Of course, every church is supposed to be praying.
But it can slip. So it's a core value. If we're not praying,
we need to...it has to hold us in place.
Striving for maturity, everybody should be doing that. Every church should be doing that.
But sometimes we forget that.
Wholehearted praise and intimate worship
is listed there. Won't talk about it much. I just jumped
past some of them. They're self-explanatory. They're just a few of our core values.
Integrity and credibility.
Ministry is a relationship of trust, top of page 24.
For trust to be built in a church, its people and pastoral staff
must set an example of integrity and credibility in everything
we do. That is a core value.
We mess that up. We will mess with what God's trying
to do. And that covers everything
from finances to prayer lines
to...it covers everything.
We have to try to stay in
integrity. Not to the point
of shutting the Holy Spirit down. Or
compromising on the Word. Because you can
say, well, we're just trying to stay credible with the world
so we're not going to do that in a service.
But what is that? Well, we're not going to have any messages and tongues
and interpretations. Because the world doesn't see that as credible.
Well, see now you need to go back to the first core value.
And the second, the Word and the moving
of the Spirit are first. And
the world may not see it as credible. But God sees
a message and tongues and interpretation as credible
if it's from Him. You wouldn't believe
how many people in the association I'm
part of, they discourage
on a service where there can be a lot of visitors. They discourage any
supernatural. We'll do it on a different
service. We'll do it on a Wednesday night. We'll do it on a home group, maybe a Sunday night, if we have a Sunday night
service. But on Sunday morning,
we're not going there.
See, and that's between them and God again. Not my issue.
But for us to do that, we'd be
losing integrity with God. Can't go there.
If the Holy Spirit wants to speak in a Sunday morning service,
who am I to tell Him no? There have been
times I've gone home going, nah, that was
really different because there was three visiting families here and that
service did not go a direction I thought it would have for visitors.
But you know what, God loves the visitors more than I do.
And if He, you know,
people will say, well, did you feel that was right? Yeah, in my gut it felt right. I talked to some of the other
leadership, felt right to them. Yeah, but how did it affect the people? Well, at that point it's not
my issue. It has to be, if it's
right, it's right. How it affects the people is their issue.
What we got to concentrate on is, are we credible? Are we still
in a place of integrity with God? Excellence, this is a
fact. It was, the Old Testament standard was that God
was given the best, or God didn't want it.
That, I mean, you see that over and over in the Old Testament.
The New Testament standard is give Him all of us our heart, soul, mind,
and strength. Definition of excellence.
All authorities delegated, it is our
responsibility to protect and promote the same spirit, will
and purpose and standards as the authority we are under.
Now that doesn't make much sense. Read E and F and then I'll come
back to D. E and F, excellence in ministry is doing the very best we are
capable of. F
revaluation. Our best only remains our best until we
can do better. Then we must strive
on and we are no longer offering our best.
So in other words, move on, realize we're not giving our best.
Give them our best. Go back to letter D.
God never requires anything of me that He doesn't require
of Himself. God requires excellence of Himself.
Scripturally, God requires excellence of
me and the leadership because God requires
it of Himself. Scripturally, everything we're supposed to do, we're supposed to
do it to the best of our ability. Which
means that's what we require of people involved in the church.
Ah, that's good enough that don't fly here.
If you could have done better, you should have done better.
Now sometimes the best we can do is not all that
great because of the way things came to be in circumstances and
things got in the way. But we're still giving our
best considering what just we just came through.
So it's not like perfect or not perfect at all.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying is if you aren't giving your best
you're not pleasing God because He wants our
best. He doesn't want our good enough. He doesn't want
our that'll do. He doesn't want any of those
things. He wants our best. It's one of our core values.
In fact, I've said it this way from time to time.
Trying to paint this picture.
When we were in Colorado we had, there was a season of
time we went through where the people who were helping us were
really hard on the equipment. It just seemed like every
two, three weeks something was broken. And it's like
what in the world is going on? So I gave them all
a little speech. You know, we got to take care of these things. And this, that and the other.
And nothing changed. So I started
talking individually to some of them saying what, you know, give me your input on this.
It was the input.
Well you expect too much.
What do you mean I expect too much? We're replacing stuff
in our house all the time stuff gets broken.
Just, I mean, we're playing
game in a living room and somebody throws some TV broken. So we'll just replace it.
Or toast got stuck in the toaster
and one of the kids got in there and just ruddered around and
broke the toaster. We just expect to have to keep replacing
stuff all the time because it gets damaged.
Okay, well that's probably why when I said we need to do better at this, nothing changed.
Because in your mind you're doing good.
That's your standard of excellence.
So I started saying this to ground on some people.
I said I want you to treat our equipment like I would treat it.
When you're going to deal with it, look at, how would Pastor Verne deal with this?
Or another one I used is, I want you
to treat our equipment in a way that if it breaks, you replace it.
So if you break it, you buy a new one.
Well no, the church is supposed to do it. No, no. You need some skin in the game here.
You broke it, you replace it. It's only a few hundred
bucks. It ain't that big a deal. You would be amazed how quickly everything changed.
Now there were some disgruntled people
because I'm pushing them too hard. It's like, no, actually
if we can do better,
we need to do better.
We need to strive for excellence. Don't set
the bar here when in reality, with just paying a little more attention
and being a little bit more diligent, we could set the bar up there.
This is not what pleases God. He wants our best.
So it's a core value. Responsibility
equals authority. I won't say much on this. But I will say
this. You will not be given authority
here without responsibility. You can't
the normal church, the board runs the church and the board does
hardly nothing. The board members. They just get voted on
and somebody else is turned because so and so did it for five years and he's tired of it. So vote
so and so on. They do hardly nothing in the church, but now all of a
sudden they've got the authority to make the big decisions.
No, no, no. That is not how you run a company.
That's how you run it in the ground. But that's
not how you run a company. That's not.
If you're going to have the authority, you better carry
realms of responsibility. And if you're carrying realms of
responsibility, we're going to give you the authority. You make
some decisions. You make it happen.
Don't have the
responsibility and put the authority on me.
Let's just take an example.
Praise and worship team. They've got the authority to come up here.
They've got the responsibility to be up here and to lead praise and worship
and they've got the authority to follow the Spirit and pick the courses they want and this, that
and the other. And those two work hand in hand.
Now, if they had the responsibility
to do it but didn't want the authority and they're always
asking me, what do you want? I want praise and worship. No, what kind
of songs do you want? Could you pick the songs for us this coming Sunday?
Well, I might as well do it myself then. Why do I have you?
You're making me actually
responsible because you're handing me the authority. I'm handing you the
authority. You hear God. You listen to what God
wants to happen. You pick the courses. You learn the songs. You
flow in it. And if you miss it, a number of
Sundays in a row, we'll talk about it and try to figure out, you know, what's happening.
But many times we hand the
responsibility on but we maintain the authority.
That's wrong. Or we hand the authority
on with no responsibility.
This guy on the board has never served in the nursery
one day in his life. And now he's going to decide
whether we update the equipment there or not.
He's got all the authority. No responsibility.
No. No, no, no, no, no. If
you're going to have authority, you're going to have responsibility. And with responsibility,
we're going to hand you the authority. The two go together.
It's a core value. Authenticity
just be real and genuine.
Yes, praise God, brother.
Isn't it a good day to be alive? Bless his holy name.
You talk like that at home. If you don't talk like
if you do well, then that's you, I guess. If you don't talk like that at
home, quit talking like that here. You're not being real.
Be you.
You know why people don't like to be us who are afraid of rejection. You might not accept
me. Well, we'll work on that when that time comes. But be you.
We want the real person.
We want authenticity. And stewardship, proper managing time, talents,
treasures.
Next page 26, financial
income and outgo. Stewardship on that.
Management of volunteer time. Not demanding too much.
Not letting them buy with sloppy jobs because
well, I don't want to require too much of them. Recognizing
different talents in the congregation, so forth. Core values.
They're what hold us on the mark
as we're moving toward what God's asked us to do.
Our lives are filled with core values.
Your life is filled. Now we're going to switch to personal. And this all will stop this
this morning. Your life is filled with core values. In every area
they're what guide you and keep you going
the direction you should be going. When a person does not have core
values, they become unpredictable.
Well, you never know what they're going to do. That's because they don't have
core values guiding their life. Well, you don't know if they're
going to tell you the truth or not. Well, apparently, honesty and truth is not a core
value to them. We become very underpredictable
and we get destructive because it could go any direction at any time.
Do you know that? Now just think about this.
When two people get married, the vows, do you know what the vows are?
They're a boiled down version of the core values
that marriage will run on. And they both
agree to those core values.
You know, if a guy was standing at the altar and
his vows to his wife was
I am going to beat you. I am going to take advantage
of you. I'm going to abuse you. I'm going to
cheat on you. These are the things I promise.
I would sure hope she'd say
I'm out of this one.
And some guys give the right answers, but then after they're married
those are their real core values. This over here was just to get
her to say yes. But the real core values
show up. And the abuse shows up. And
the not being able to handle a checkbook and all the things
you promise to take care of her, all of a sudden, I don't give a rip anymore.
I'm taking care of myself. Well, see, that's a liar. That's a hypocrite.
He should have never said I will or I do. These are the things I do.
But when we give
I promise to honor you. I promise to love you. I promise
to take care of you. I promise to put you first
in human relationships. And on and on and on.
Do you know what we're setting? We're setting core values that will guide that
marriage, the rest of that marriage.
And we're coming into agreement on those core values.
Contracts. Do you know what contracts are? A business and a person. You're buying
a car and you're getting a loan on it. The Loaning Company
the place you're getting your loan from is going to have core values
you have to agree to. You don't agree to them
they're not going to give you the money. That's all that is, core values.
This is what's going to guide the next six years. You're going to pay us
$600 a month. You're going to keep it insured.
You're going to not be late on your payment. If you miss a payment
we're going to charge you more and it just lists out.
Those are all core values to the company that you have to agree to
or they won't give you money. It's a contract.
Core values hit every area of our
life. Everything, if you ask yourself
or ask your spouse or ask whoever, why do you do that?
If they're going to be honest with you, you're going to touch a core value immediately.
I'll give you an example. I was
probably nine years old. We were on a trip, family
trip. My uncle's family and our family were on a trip together.
I happened to be in the car with some of the cousins and the uncle
and we stopped at a gas station.
My cousin, who was older than me by, I don't know, five years
ish. He had his license already. He was
driving, so maybe he was a little older than that. He went in and bought
we called him a pop out west.
If you're in Wisconsin, they're a soda.
So, whatever you call them. He went in and bought a pop back in those days
they didn't come in cans. They came in bottles. And you had to pay a deposit
on the bottle if you were going to leave with the bottle. Remember that?
Some of you are going...
No, that's how it worked. The deposit at that point, at that time
was three cents. You had to give them three extra cents if you were going to get in the
car and go down the road with your bottle about.
So, my cousin gets in the car and everybody gets back in the car and we're
headed out of the parking lot. And my cousin goes like this
and my uncle sees it and says, did you pay the deposit
on that bottle? Dad
it's only three cents.
He about came unglued. Stop the car! Turn it around! Get back there!
Dad, it's only three cents.
He said, it's not the three cents.
I will not be a thief.
See, that's a core value. I will steal from
no one, even if it's three cents.
That's a core value that guides your life.
Because many times temptations come to do otherwise.
You're going through the line.
It happened to me just at Menards and now I'm smart enough to realize
some of these are just little traps the devil lays out to get me out of prosperity.
Going through the line at Menards and
she rang everything up and I was watching her and she missed one
item. And I could... it was an expensive
item. It was like, I don't know, four bucks? Something cheap.
And she missed it and just threw it on.
And the thought went through my mind,
oh, I got that free. It's like, no,
we are not going to open the door
to some kind of curse coming into my life financially because of
a three, four dollar item. So I asked her, I said, did you get that?
Did you charge me for that? What? That?
Right there. Oh, she said, I think I just
forgot that. She pulled it out.
Why would I do that?
It's core value. Core value built
on the word. You say, you kept your mouth shut, you could have saved that money.
Oh, that was minor. There's been opportunities. I could have saved a lot of money if I
had kept my mouth shut. But you can't do that
and please him. You can't do that and stay
blessed by him. You can't do that without opening a door to a realm
you don't want the door open because that three, four bucks is going to look like
a penny down the road a few years because things start
falling apart and now you can't remember why.
So it's just better to have a core value and guide the boat straight
all the time. That's what core values are about.
So my challenge to you is reevaluate your core
values. Make sure they're scriptural. Make sure they're moral
according to the scripture. Don't make
excuses for what you know inside is wrong.
Well, other people do it too. I don't give a rip what other people do. If you know
what's wrong, you better knock it off.
This is between you and God. And when you stand before God and he says
you did that wrong. Well, everybody was doing it wrong, God. You think that's going to fly?
He's going to say, I'm not talking to everybody now. I'm talking
to you. Why did you do this? You knew
better. Core values. We have to pay attention
to them and we have to live by them. Make sure they're
scriptural. Make sure they're correct. Sometimes they need to be tweaked a little
bit as culture changes and life changes. But if they're built on
scripture, they won't change much. Lying was wrong
when Jesus was on earth. Lying was wrong when the founding fathers started this country
and I hate to say it, lying is still wrong. A lot of people don't understand
that anymore. Government officials
especially. It's still wrong
and when you stand before God you're going to answer for it. Need a better
core value. See this?
Yeah, I'll say it.
This whole thing of
the government and politics comes always, this isn't about parties,
this isn't about
that realm. It's about godly
scriptural morals. And if you see
the godly scriptural morals and measure the person representing
you against godly scriptural core values
you will know whether you should vote for them or not.
I don't know if you saw the state of the union address.
I did not watch it because I didn't want to get myself upset.
So I didn't even watch it. But I watched
some of the commentators about it.
And I'm sorry.
We are not better off
now financially than we were three years ago.
We are not. And I hate to tell you
either you're out of touch or you're lying through your teeth. Inflation is still not
under control. Because we're paying
a whole lot more for stuff.
And here is a big one. Our country is safer
than it's ever been. See now
all I have to do is measure that against scriptural morality.
You don't get my vote.
Because you're either dumb as a rock not paying attention
or you're flat out lying to me. And either one is not worthy
of the vote. So all we need
to do is pay attention to some basic scriptural
values. Core values. And
apply them in that arena. And it measures everything for us.
I'm sorry, everything works. It's that easy.
And I'm not trying to get political.
I'm trying to take the gospel and apply it to every area.
That's all I'm trying to do.
So Lord help us to live, identify
create wherever we're at.
Godly core values that steer us through life.
We will not compromise on certain things. We will not
change on certain things. We will not allow or we do allow things
to happen certain ways because his word
says so. End of subject. We're doing it
this way because this is God. And it guides
us through our whole life. Lord help us make sure we've
got those in place. Because many opportunities
come along this road to give us the opportunity
to do something that just isn't right according to what God says.
It's just going the wrong direction. It's agreeing with the wrong side.
That's not who we are as Christians. That's not who this church is.
Doesn't mean we're doing everything perfect. But Lord that is one of the things
we're holding on to to try to stay in step.
Your word is a guide
to my feet. It's a light to my path. It shows
us how we should walk. That's our core values.
So help us establish those and make those be in alignment with
you and what you say in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Be blessed. Have an awesome week.