There Has Been Problems | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson by Chad Erickson First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: Matthew 25:31-40, Matthew 25:45-46, Acts 2, Mark 2:1-12, John 13:34-35 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/chad-erickson--there-has-been-problems Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ grab your bibles and if you would turn to matthew chapter 25 and verse 31 amen once again so good to see everyone in the house of the lord today amen give honor to our senior pastor and first lady love them so much they are ministering this weekend in savannah tennessee and we pray for them amen we pray for our student pastor and his wife are ministering in denver colorado this weekend and we love and miss them miss them dearly i want to say how good it is i saw brother rwood brother sister arwen we love you all so much our founding pastor first apostolic love you all whenever his health allows it he is here amen and we are so thankful every time we get to see him amen in this place well i'm excited i said it earlier our academy is about to begin the largest uh the largest attendance the greatest school year we've ever began and i'm looking forward our teachers we've been having training all week long and they've been preparing uh they've been preparing for your for your children and i just believe uh i believe our faculty this year uh are like none other we have the greatest teaching staff we have the great administrators the principals that the academic heads and i'm so thankful that god has blessed this church with a christian school are you blessed are you blessed today uh this really i didn't obviously didn't have this in my notes because i just saw uh this morning when we were getting ready to start church i saw a text come through my my mother-in-law put in the family feed there an hour earlier than us and she put a she put a picture that she had seen online on social media maybe you saw it in portland where they have they have antifa in different groups a christian they're trying to have a christian service in a park trying to have just just they weren't demonstrating uh they were they were just having like we would do if we went to the park and wanted to have a good gospel singing maybe some preaching along with it and and these anti groups came in and started just ripping the cords out of the speakers and started pushing the speakers over and harassing families and i got to thinking to myself i'm so glad to be living in east tennessee you know i i don't know i don't know what our country is going to do or what it's coming to they said that the police were called the police didn't show up and again i'm glad to be living in east tennessee i'm glad to be you know and sometimes i think i never i've never wanted to create such a sheltered environment that we don't see what's going on because if we ever get to the point where we don't see what's going on on the outside they they say history if you don't study history you're you're gonna end up repeating it and i want i want as an apostolic church as apostolic christian academy although our children are protected from so much of what's going on in the world at the same time we've got to be wary we got to understand what's happening so that we can understand how blessed we are i never want their i never want there to come a day when we question say is christian school really that important but god help us to be aware of the times be aware of the times i thank god for our staff we're going to be having a very a special prayer that's going to go on we're going to go throughout our school this evening after after our evening service tonight at the end of our service we're going to go through and anoint and pray over our student body prayer of our staff believe that god is going to give a great uh great a great school year to our staff and i began by saying that because to our staff i would apologize that you've already heard some of what i'm going to teach and preach this morning but i don't make apologies just because i believe god has added something to what i'm already sharing with you matthew 25 i don't want you to stand long but i do want to read through this scripture passage verse 31 says when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats he shall set the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left then shall the king say unto them on the right hand come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepare for you from the foundation of the world here we go verse 35 for i wasn't hungered and you gave me meat i was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me i was sick and you visited me i was in prison and you came unto me then show the righteous answered watch this saying lord when saw we thee hungered and fed thee thirst and gave thee drink and when did we see thee as a stranger took the inner naked and clothed the ear or when saw if he sick or in prison and came unto thee and the king shall answer and say unto them verily i say unto you in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brother you have done it unto me and then for time's sake we could go down from verse 41 to verse 46 and now he's going to speak unto the goats who saw him hungered who who saw him thirsty saw him naked as strange or sick in prison and did not come unto him did not help him did not assist him and we look down at verse 45 and he answer verily i say to you that inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me and these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal uh my title today it's very simple not going to make sense for a few moments but simply this there has been problems there has been problems it's a message on time management of a disciple maker how many want to be a disciple maker how many want to make disciples that that's our calling as a church that's our calling as the body of christ we are not just to be a people who lives in some royalty and who who feels like we can just live in the in the glory and the splendor of god we have been called to make disciples let's pray together father we love you and we're so thankful god what a great crowd of people that are in this place this morning lord what a great host of worshipers a host of praises that's in this house today with me and i thank you for them lord i enjoyed worshiping with them god i enjoyed so much the choir lord the power of your spirit that i felt lord god as your holy ghost was just moving through this house and lord god i'm believing today lord as i begin to teach on time management of the disciple maker god i believe that you're going to open up minds and you're going to you're going to open up hearts to receive your word lord god not just to receive it but god to be obedient to your word lord i want to hide your word in my heart that i might not sin against god lord i want to be not only a christian lord god but i want to be a disciple maker lord god i pray that you'd help me speak for me today in jesus let me pray amen and amen why don't you clap your hands before your seat and come on give god praise one more time god we love you god we bless you in this house this morning and you may you may be seated we spend a whole lot of time in acts chapter 2 preaching about the essentiality of the plan of salvation and eternal life and rightfully so it's very important to understand that that we must live a repentant lifestyle we do we do understand we do i hope we understand that that repentance is more than just saying god i'm sorry we understand that repentance is so much more than just feeling remorse for something or actions we've done there has to be a lifestyle change that goes along with the remorse amen we live a life of repentance when when peter got up and preached on the day of pentecost and said repent it was so much more than just a one-time act in order to receive the holy ghost or a one-time act in order to be baptized he was saying you've got to turn away from the lifestyle that you've been living the way that you've been thinking you've got to turn away from that stuff i thank god it's essential to repent to live a lifestyle of repentance it is essential if we want to live eternal with our god it's essential that we're baptized in the name of jesus for the remission of our sins listen i don't want my sins hanging around me i don't know about you but there's some stuff that i've done in my life and i'm so thankful that that washing water the regenerator and water of the baptism on jesus name i thought i'm thankful that my sins have been remitted i've they've been removed they're no longer clinging to me like baggage i can let him go and then there's something about being filled with the holy ghost you got to have his spirit living inside of you you're not going to be caught up there's going to be no there's going to be no invitation of the spirit if his spirit is not within you we've got to have the power of the holy ghost and the spirit of god living inside of us so essential i i'm reminded yesterday my wife and i got to meet amanda mcdaniel and her husband dylan and their little baby boy charlie uh they came here to the church yesterday uh she she emailed called the church got my email address and began to email me said can somebody please call me pastor might have told you i believe he did tell us about it on wednesday night she said can somebody please call me she said i've been watching your services on youtube and she says i see the need to be baptized in jesus name which i say thank god for social media thank god for our production team thank god they were able to push and preach this gospel into the airwaves i began to talk to her and i called her and she's there from townsend and she said she said i when i was seven she said i thought i was saved i was baptized in the nominal church and she said i thought everything was good and so i until i started watching your services and i started hearing this this preaching about jesus name baptism and she said my husband dylan and i we've been we've been studying the bible we're reading through the bible and and the more we read the more we see that nobody else was baptized in the name of the titles nobody was baptized in the name of the titles and we begin she said we begin to wonder why were we baptized in the titles she said we began to read through acts and and read through the epistles and in time after time everybody was baptized in the name of jesus and and sure enough we had a bible study again last night and and to see her go down in the water and when she came back up she if she didn't receive the holy ghost she is so close to receiving the holy ghost because why because she got the revelation of jesus name baptism and when you see it you can't unsee it i said when you see it you can't unsee it once you know that you know once you begin to look through the book and everywhere you read you see oh my god well the samaritans were the jews the gentiles everybody was baptized in jesus name you can't un-see it it's essential and amanda i know i know you're watching you told me you watch every one of our services i know you're watching keep on reading your bible keep on studying your bible we're going to give you a bible study you got to keep on reading that bible because it's going to come alive and when it comes alive everything is going to make sense that you've ever wondered about i'm so thankful for the book of acts i'm i'm so thankful that we as the apostolic movement i'm so thankful that we have this experience called pentecost it's not a denomination it's not a religion i was trying to explain to dylan last night he said i just thought there's so many different uh every church does it differently and he said i just don't know which church to be baptized into and i said well hold on right there you don't get baptized into this church you there's no membership we don't have a membership the only thing you get baptized into the body of christ that's what makes us different that's what makes us different from every other steepled church up and down this road is because we understand it's not that you're coming a part of us and send us your letter your transfer letter and we'll sign off or they'll sign up it has nothing to do with that we are the body of christ and it's essential that we follow the plan of salvation for eternal life but as i begin to read matthew chapter 25 i begin to realize that we we we focused so much on the acts to experience that sometimes we may feel like that's kind of where it ends and as long as you follow acts chapter 2 everything's going to be okay but as i begin to read in verse 46 and these those that didn't care for others needs these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal it it does matter it does matter how we treat one another it does matter how we treat those that are outside of this building i'm gonna preach about it for a little while because sometimes we get in our little apostolic society and we get used to having church that we forget to be the church what we're doing for others is being recorded in heaven what we do for others what we do for others is being recorded and my god i don't want to be that person that sits on the left hand side the son of man when he comes in his glory will divide the sheep from the goats so everyone is either a goat or a sheep let me clear something up because the new generation goat doesn't mean the same thing that matthew is referring to goat greatest of all time you know my generation you know we argue that michael jordan was the goat and this this new yeah and this new generation they're like lebron james is the goater i'm like who greatest of all time that's not what matthew was talking about and then sheep you got to watch it because because in the new generation things get twisted around if somebody calls you a sheep that's not a good thing today that's saying that you're a follower that you can't make decisions for yourself you're a sheep that's not what matthew was talking about don't don't be confused matthew was saying there's a difference between goat and sheep now now goats and sheep are sheared sheep looks very similar to a goat and to a non-farmer there might be some confusion somebody who doesn't somebody who doesn't keep flocks there might be some confusion because many times the shape of their ears is the same and and their shape of their facial structure is the same and even body size is very similar their weight is very similar i'm talking about a sheared sheep please understand i think all of us can understand what a sheep that has not been sheared looks like but sometimes the only way i begin to study and the only way that you can tell these two apart if they're in the same pen together is their tails the goat's tail points up and the sheep's tail points down i'm not i didn't bring any sheep's tail or goat's tail so we can look you're just gonna have to take my word for it that's what that's what i study that's what i study they look alike they sound alike and they even smell alike but they don't act anything alike for sheep graze together in fields sheep love company they love to be together helping one another and goats explore they find odd items to eat and to chew on goats have no issue with getting off to themselves away from the others you'll find them up on roofs as we all know goats on the roof right they didn't make that up that happens they find the high areas they want to go the they they want to go to the very highest and they'll climb and man you'll see them up on their hind legs they'll be chewing on tree limbs and chewing bark off trees and killing trees and root uprooting all your grass goats will eat anything but sheep want to stay together matter of fact if a sheep strays off it's totally by accident because their desire is to stay in the fold and do what's best for the flock but the solvent had asked me this week it said he said pastor erickson can you speak on time management and i thought you know what i will absolutely speak on time manage because it's something that i really want to study and a lot of times when you when you preach you get to study the things that you really want you really want to work on you know what i'm saying and so i thought you know what i'm going to study this because you know as i've gotten older i can't sleep at night hardly you know i'm up i'm up 5 30 6 a.m every morning i just can't sleep past i try sometimes saturdays i try to but i'm wide awake and and so it's not a big deal for me as far as getting to work i'm i'm here every morning to drop the girls off at work in my office i love i love keeping office hours i'm gold i'm go all you know real colors i'm gold i like schedule i like everything in a box i like i like to know what i'm doing all day i got my checklist i know what time i'm in the office i know what time i'm at the meeting i don't time i'm having lunch with somebody i know what time everything is very detailed right so as far as that kind of time management goes i was like you know i could probably help somebody somebody here somebody in our staff i'm sure i'm sure there's some other colors that could probably could use some help with time management and so i began to study and i i had some i told solomon i said i had some really really good stuff i um you know because a lot of times people who don't manage their time well it's because they don't know how to say no people ask them to do things and they don't have time for it but they they say yes because they can't say no and then all their stuff's messed up their priorities get all shifted around because they're doing stuff that they really shouldn't be doing and so i was going to bring paper plates it's going to be fun for teachers because teachers like fun stuff i was going to bring paper plates and have them write down all the responsibilities and fill the plate up with all what do you do on a monday and what do you do on a tuesday what do you do for your family what are you doing for work what are you doing and they're going to write it all down and i was going to tell them all you got to do is the next person to ask you to do something brother keith you just show them the plate and say my plate is full just carry your plate just wear it around whatever just carry it with you but i didn't and then i was gonna i was gonna i was gonna teach about i was gonna say you know what uh the first fruits of time you've talked about time management you gotta talk about first fruits because you know we talk about we talk about finances first fruits talent first fruits give give your first fruits to god talent but you know time time has first fruits too give god give god the very beginning give god the very best don't don't give god time when you're tired give god time in the mornings give god give god your first i was going to go into that but i walked into my office on monday morning going to finish preparing been reading and studying i was going to finish preparing and as i walked into my office i noticed something on my desk and it was this little card and it said you have the best ideas and i thought oh thank you and i flipped it over and it says you inspire me because dot dot dot and i thought this is gonna be awesome appreciated but what it said absolutely rocked my world because i wasn't ready to read what i read and it was it was written by a child it was written by my little child and it simply said dear brother eric's we love you there has been problems can you please pray for me guys i can't tell you i'm tearing up now i thought by now i'd be over it i cried during a staff meeting all monday morning i cried i was like so torn up i was i had a meeting in the in the connect center the teachers were in the coffee shop meeting i didn't want to i didn't want to disturb him so i came down through the center out here and it was dark i had my coffee and i was headed to my meeting i didn't know that monitor was there and when i say i face planted i was just do eyes were swollen red because i've been crying all morning praying i've been just come walking up minding my own business headed to go out that door right there i've got i've got the security video y'all it's hilarious i mean i caught this thing dead center and had nowhere to go pitch black in here had coffee in the hand coffee everywhere thank god for a hard surface caught thank god my mother-in-law was in here coffee everywhere and i watched the video y'all and i laid there for like 30 seconds that that's what kind of morning i was having that's what kind of morning i was like i don't even care i've got coffee all over my shirt i got coffee there's i feel coffee everywhere my ipad was slung halfway across my phone was i didn't even care i just laid there collected myself and went and watched the video but monday i also tore up because i began to think and and i do want to say this that my wife is my wife is well aware of the situation but i got to wondering how many people are sitting right here in these pews around us where there's problems and we can we can get so into our apostolic little shells that we don't even we don't even see the people around us that's what that's what jesus was saying he was saying did you not realize that would you help those that were in need when you fed them when you gave them drink when they were thirsty did you not realize that for the least of these you were doing that for me it had nothing to do with who you were doing it for it was the whole idea it was the point it was the principle that you loved each other so much and what what what jesus was saying was simply this he was saying i've got sheep who care and i've got goats that don't give a rip i've got i've got people who want to see others succeed and want to add value to others lives and then i've got some people that don't even care and i begin to think to myself this is what true time management's all about thank god for all y'all that have everything perfect in your life and you spend the right amount of time with your families in the right amount of time at work and the right amount of time everywhere you're supposed to study in students and everything is what thank god that you have your act together and your time is managed in that form but my god i want my time to be managed in a way that i have time for people that really need me i began to ask myself chad what are you spending your time on what are you spending your time on i don't want to major in the minors in minor in the majors what does that mean it means i can spend so much time making sure that my ministry is fulfilled i can spend so much time making sure that my desires are met come on help me somebody i can make i can take so much time on my personal goals and so much time on my accomplishments and making sure that people see what i've done and what i'm doing that ministry no longer becomes ministry does that make sense i i'm remind i'm reminded i'm i'm reminded of the good the story the good samaritan right here here a jew is going from jerusalem in the bat going towards babylon and gets attacked by thieves and robbers gets beat up everything's stored from him he's bloody he's in the ditch jesus is telling the story because people people are questioning saying what does it mean to love thy neighbor jesus is like let me explain to what that means he says along comes a jewish man sees him bleeding and jesus said he kept on walking now we're talking about a brother okay we're talking about the jewish man is in the ditch the jewish man sees him the jew the bible says that he he crosses jesus said he crossed to the other side of the road and kept on walking then along comes a priest and y'all i don't want to be this priest he is headed to go minister and what he's going to preach from the pulpit he passes along in the ditch oh my god this this jumped out at me because i got to thinking how many times have i headed to my office to go study to preach when there were problems people i was passing having issues needing somebody to come minister to them but i was too busy going to get ready to minister i've got i've got to head to the synagogue i've got a head i've got to go minister i've got i can't be late they're expecting me to come in there and minister and the priest the bible says did the same thing he went to the other side of the road and totally ignored the fact that somebody needed ministry more than anybody that was in the synagogue and then comes the samaritan samaritan looks sees one in need a dirty samaritan let's just be honest they were so they were so prejudiced against the samaritans the samaritans were were half jew and half gentile they were they were a mixed breed they were they were a jew who had left their faith to go marry a gentile and here is the offspring the samaritan samaritan sees the need he cleans them up he takes them to the end he pays the innkeeper to take care of him that's what i want to be right there listen god help us as children of god as brothers and sisters god help us to see the need y'all there's been problems there's been problems i told our teachers i said we have no idea the issues that go on in the homes we're so good at being apostolic y'all we know how to dress it up we know we know that that successful apostolic families look a certain way and dress a certain way and walk a certain way and act a certain way and so many times oh my god so many times and and listen i i'm getting a little i'm getting a little ahead of myself right here i'm going to hit myself right here but i saw a sign in mars hill university while we were at strong tower youth camp i saw this sign that said please wear masks unless you're alone and i know that man i know he was dealing with covet i know they're they're trying to stop the spread of covert i understand that but something the holy ghost picked my heart and i thought to myself how many people get out in public and wear a mask how many people put on a facade like everything's okay life's okay family is okay marriage is okay children are okay they come into the presence of people that can help them people that can actually do something for them people that can pray for them people that can actually touch god for them and they act like everything is okay in this apostolic culture that we put together everything looks so perfect the hungry put a suit on it the thirsty put a ribbon in the hair those that are that are strange put a long dress on it the naked put a smile on your face the sick come on put on some shiny shoes that you can wear to church the addicted put a bible under the arm and nobody will ever know yo this is where my passion begins right here because too often my time is spent not looking around for the need it was it was brother pastor john vasquez pastor john vasquez he was he was asked he was our he was our youth pastor when i was in bible school we would go to potts camp and he was a youth pastor in post camp mississippi at the bethlehem church of the lord jesus christ one of my one of my favorite churches in all the world he was he was youth pastor and we would go as students we would we would leave on the weekend and we would come down to potts camp and we would visit potsky people never heard of potts camp but you would go there and and man it was like a magical place you had it was it was in the middle of nowhere but then this great church just just rose out of the ground and the greatest people the greatest people went to church there and we had people here that that were formerly from potts camp it's such a great church and john vasquez he was our youth pastor and years later he was being interviewed and it was asked he was asked the question if you had it to do over again what would you change he said i wouldn't major in the minors he said i naturally gravitated to the good kids in the youth group the kids who had everything going the kids that showed up to all the youth events the kids that stayed after late and helped tear down the kids that showed up when they were supposed to show up and they were quiet when they're supposed to be quiet and they they they preach the preacher when they're supposed to preach a preacher and they were on the praise team he said i gravitated to those kids because it was easy it made me feel good as a youth pastor because i felt successful gravitating towards the kids who made me feel successful as a leader he said and i look back now in the very students who needed me the most he said i shunned away the very students that were hurting the very students that were in these families oh my god where the dad was doing this and the mom was doing that and the very ones that had siblings that were out of control and there was abuse going on and they were acting out just to get my attention he said i pushed them away and i got to thinking yeah because i did the same thing when i was youth pastor because that's what's natural it's natural and i'm going to use my names but it's natural for the bethany ammons and the jamie johnsons and the fallon ericksons and the brandon johnsons it's natural it's natural to look to those kids and want those kids to be around me as a youth pastor because it felt good they're living for god they're doing what i'm preaching they're doing what i'm leading in the youth classes when all along there were other students y'all and i apologized in front of you because i was too immature to realize that they were the ones in need i was too immature as a youth pastor to see the reason why they were acting rebellious like they were acting rebellious i didn't understand that they were going home if they had a father that would beat them i didn't know that all i saw was them acting out and talking during class all i saw was them not participating in the service i didn't know that there were problems i was in and i was looking you know this tears me up because i was looking how can i promote my ministry can i be cuddly transparent how can i promote how how can i get to the next level what can i do i want to be the youth president what can i do to be youth president what can i do with the general youth president what where can i what can i do to obtain and to further my ministry when all along god was putting people in my life that needed me so bad and god is putting people in your life right now that are needing you and we have a choice we're either a sheep or a goat y'all there's two choices we're either people that see the need to add value to others or people that want others to add value to us that's all you get there's no in between you say well that's not me either oh yes you got one you got one or the other you can't make a choice in the middle because the bible clearly states that he separated the goats from the sheep he said you loved you didn't care you loved you didn't care you loved you didn't care you didn't love it and he separated them out and i think to myself god open the eyes of every person in this place today to look even down their pew there's people sitting on the pew with you today sunday school teachers i know that a lot of our sunday school teachers are in the room today my god he only knows what's going on students lives in your classrooms school teachers day care teachers oh my god god help us to have empathy for the people that we're dealing with help us be able to put ourselves in their shoes there's a reason why they don't want to go home there's a reason why kids come to school and they're here early and they want to stay late there's a reason and god help us to see that need and to put our time manage our time in a way that says god help me to make time for people in need for i was in hungered and you gave me meat i was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me i was sick and you visited me i was in prison and you came unto me i want you just just for a moment close your eyes and i want i want god god i'm asking you right now to put a name into every mind in this place now i know when when it says hungry keep your eyes closed i know when it says hungry we think of people under under the bridge but listen hunger there's there's so much more hunger than just hunger for food there are those that are hungry for food and my god we're gonna do everything we can to fix them i saw a woman at the gas station on my way to georgia the other day and i felt compelled she asked me she said do you have any money and i said i don't and i did and i had no cash and i turned around and there was an atm machine right beside me and i thought my god y'all listen i'm not saying anything about myself i'm just saying i said god pricked my heart i put my atm card in that machine i took out 60 dollars i gave that woman 60 i don't know what she did with it but listen hurtless and my eyes are closed right now and i can see her face right now i can see that woman but she's more than hungry just for food i made her promise i said you get i get on factv.org you get me she might be watching right now i said i said i said you've got to get on and you've got to watch and you i said there's so much more people are hungry i want god to put names and faces in our minds i want god to blame lay a soul upon a heart the thirsty the stranger i look at the people that that are strange they don't even know they don't know the naked the sick the addicted these are problems that are sitting in our pews these are problems of people in our next door neighbor in our neighborhoods my god help us to see listen it's so hard to see sometimes it's so hard to see sometimes we got to get out of our apostolic culture and reach people that are in need we've got to understand there is a dying world and they just don't know what to do they're looking for any reason they're looking to reach out to us they want to ask us questions but they are intimidated and they don't know what to do we need each other mark chapter two this reminds me of mark chapter two the bible says in mark two and one it says again jesus entered into capernaum after some days and it was noise that he was in the house and straightway many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive them no not so much as about the door and he preached the word unto them and verse 3 is beautiful and they come unto him bringing one sick of the palsy which was born a four he had a small group carrying him y'all he had four people that saw the need that saw the sick and said we cannot leave him in the condition he is in when we know that there's a healer in the house mark doesn't really explain he doesn't go into deep explanation on how they did it all he says is they broke apart the roof and they lowered him down in front of jesus in the house that that's all mark says but we've got to kind of in our minds we got to understand that there had to be a lot of time involved there had to be a lot of effort involved there was there was there was there was men who were carrying this guy up the side of a house they were breaking into a roof i don't know what kind of it might be just a fat truth i don't know what it was but there hadn't been a lot of effort that took place to get this man lowered down but listen we all need one another the man never would have been healed if he didn't have four friends they were willing to pick him up and care about him and say if we don't bring him to jesus he'll never get healed if we don't take him to the master he'll never get healed god help us to realize it's our responsibility to bring the lost into the house it's our responsibility to not only see them but to carry them to bring them into the house for friends lowered him into a healing service jesus said to him that he said to them your faith he saw their faith and he said to the sick of the palsy son thy sins be forgiven thee verse 11 says i say unto thee arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house and immediately he rose he took up the bed and he went forth before them all in so much that they were amazed and glorified god saying we never saw it of this fashion everybody needs a support group listen i'm unashamedly going to preach an announcement today if you're not a part of a small group get in a small group we have listen we are not islands to ourselves we've got to have help and i realize i get it i get the apostol i get i get it i understand we've got to look put together when we come into the house of god i understand we don't want to come in here with with our elbows all dirty and clothed all worn and tethered and holes in our knee i understand we're not going to walk in like that to the house of god but you've got to have a group of people that you trust enough that you're willing to share your life with and share your troubles with and share your problems with and allow them to minister to you that's what connect groups are all about it's not just events it's not just something to do we're not trying to take up another night of your life we're looking to put you into a group of people when you're sick they're gonna carry you when you're in need they're gonna pick you up you're gonna have people the bible says a man came born of four that simply means that he had at least four friends that cared enough about him to do something about my god we've got to have one another what would happen if a church had small groups whose friends caught each other's vision of desire what kind of desire am i talking about i'm glad you asked what about a desire for a better marriage come on somebody we can all come and all look and just what i desire god i've got a prodigal child i need somebody to help me pray for i got a waiver child i need them to come home that's what our small groups are all about we pray for each other's needs maybe it's a healing in your body my god what better place to be than in a group of people they will pray for your needs every time they go to god in prayer healing in your home listen again i'm unashamedly preaching announcements today go sign up for a connect group be in here and you're saying i can i can feel listen i feel it i feel it i feel people are saying brother erickson i don't know who you're talking about but it's not me i've got a perfect marriage i hear you i can hear you i've got angels for children my children have never rebelled my children are perfect our home is perfect our finances are perfect we're making more than we've ever made we're driving what we want to drive we're living in a beautiful house where we're we we have succeeded we have arrived brother erickson i don't know who you're talking to but it's not me sadly it is you i'm talking to because we need you in the connect group because you're either a gold or a sheep either you look at yourself and say i've got it and i'm happy and i'm satisfied i'm successful i'm who i want to be and you're a goat and all you're doing is just off to your own thing doing your i'll come to church but that's all you're not taking up any more of my time during the week i'm or you're a sheep and you're saying i'll be in a connect group just to help other people small groups are revelation i'm just going to tell you it's just like the oneness of god it's just like jesus name baptism understanding the concept of smokers once you get it once you understand the disciple making cannot happen in a group this large it can't you can hear the word in the group this lord you could be taught the word it could cause you to go home and read your bible and study the word but as far as being able to care for one another that only happens in small groups you say well why haven't we been doing it all along well we have we've got a christian school where kids are in small groups five days of the week right we have youth services we have sunday school where kids even right now younger kids are in small groups right now being intended to on a small in a small group but we're just trying we're trying to we're trying to make it a little we're trying to make it a little bit big we're trying to we're trying to envelope it and and try to to bring in as many as that will because it's something for those that are in need and it's also for the sheep that want to help others it's for those that are broken that need somebody to love them and it's also for the sheep that says i want somebody to love give me somebody to i want to pour my life into somebody i want to help somebody i thank god i thank god for our hyphen our hyphen groups i thank god that our young adults we have groups where they can come together and they can talk about what's happening in college you can't do this right here you can't ask questions right here if we started if we started asking for people raising their hands we would never get out of here but here we have a group where college age students can come together we we have a we have a group for for for men we have another group that are just for women we we have a mature marriage group we have a young marriage group we have a group for our spanish speaking members we're starting a brand new group i'm so excited brother cooper brother mcbroom and their wives they're starting a brand new group for our our production team i like it we're trying to find people that are already together in a group and we're saying hey we want to be more than just a and what they do is awesome their ministry is austrian but sometimes you got to be ministered to i think we're going to start doing it here pretty soon for our music team where we actually say you know what it's awesome that you come and play it's awesome that you minister through music but we're going to take a step further we're going to start ministering to each other it's small groups it's connect groups it's caring for each other please i'm gonna say it one more time if you haven't already please please sign up please sign up for a character i promise you i promise you it will change your life i've said this before but jesus jesus the greatest teacher the greatest preacher he had greater audiences people people talk about this convention that conference and did you how many were at that conference jesus they say that with men women children he probably had 25 30 000 at a time that would come to hear him preach he was one of the greatest orders one of the greatest evangelists yet at the same time he always wanted to find his 12 disciples and he wanted to minister to them directly he wanted them to ask questions he would tell parables just so they would say master what meaning of this everybody else in the crowd would leave confuse the the righteous people the pharisees the sadducees the religious leaders of the day they would walk away shaking their head and jesus would find his small group and would say listen let me explain to you what i just preached i know thousands of people heard me preaching but there's a lot of people that never got it but to you my small group we're gonna talk it out we're gonna get this because jesus loved his group thank you i want to say publicly thank you to our leaders to our assistants i know listen we're talking time management i know you don't have time i get it i get it i understand i understand you got kids in sports i understand that that sports team is about to start and you're going to be tuesdays here and mondays there i i get it and here you are now you're giving up maybe a friday or a saturday thank you for doing that because you're showing compassion you're showing love one to another i want you to stand with me there's been problems there's been problems everyone's got to ask themselves what am i am i a goat or am i sheep and here's here's here's what i got out of this both the sheep and the goat spend their time doing what sheep and goats do did you did y'all catch that as you're reading through matthew 25 that it wasn't like the sheep understood what they were doing did y'all catch that when they gave to the poor when they fed the hungry when they gave to the thirsty when they clothed the naked when they went to the prisons when they cared for the sick they said lord how have we ministered to thee they didn't even know what they were doing you know what they were doing they were just being sheep because that's what sheep do and the goats the same way they didn't know what they're doing either you know why they're just being goats goats are goats they just don't care and so you got to ask yourself the question what am i because here's the deal now that we know we can choose we can make a decision on what kind of christian we're going to be what kind of disciple maker we're going to be because in life there are givers and there are takers and you make the choice whether you're going to be a giver or taker do you all realize that and i know in your minds if you'll think it won't take long there's some people that you know are just that person that anything you need they're going to be there to help you and then there's some people that it don't matter what you need they're not going to be there to help you there's givers there's takers some people think that people are born that way but i don't believe that i believe that's something you choose to be bible talks about is more blessed to give than to receive and he's not really he's not really stating that they weren't receiving an offering for the navy during that time that wasn't like a that wasn't the offering of of the five thousand and there's more blessed again than received bring the offering in that's not what was being said right that's not what jesus was saying he was saying listen you got a choice if you're going to be a giver or a receiver if you're going to look for if you're gonna look for ways to add value to people or if you're gonna look for ways how people can help you and assist you and do for you how about y'all i just choose i wanna be like the samaritan it doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense that i help a guy who hates me and talks bad about me and won't even walk on the same side of the street as me it doesn't make sense for me to help him but something inside he was a giver something inside this he with compassion looked upon the man the jew that had been beaten and had been stolen from and he said i've got to help him because that's just who i am i'm a giver i want you to bow bow your heads one more time with me john 13 34 keep your heads bad i just want you to listen this jesus said a new commandment i have given unto you that you love one another is i have a loved you that you also love one another and verse 35 says by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one two another this was jesus was giving the 11th commandment god had given moses ten commandments written on tablets to give to his people and the leaders and the religious sects of the day were so good at following those ten commandments but jesus was saying the ten are not enough i've got one commandment left that ain't nobody following unless you're one of my disciples i've got one commandment left i'm about to give to you that is just as important probably more important than any other commandment he said i've got a new commandment that you love one another as i have loved you i disbelieve today father in jesus name lord i believe we're gonna make this whole place lord this whole auditorium one large altar i i'm not going to call anybody to the altar i want to make this whole auditorium an altar i wish somebody in this place would just say god begin to speak to my heart say god am i loving enough am i giving love am i sharing love enough come on somebody you got to start asking yourself the question what kind of person am i am i a taker or am i a giver am i looking for people that are in need am i trying everything within myself to add value to other people come on somebody take inventory what does your time look like are you managing your time to love other people are you giving time throughout your week to give to other people god help us right now i i believe lord god the little girl lord god that wrote this card to me lord i pray for her right now in jesus name god i've been praying for her all week god i want you to see her where she is guys god there's been problems lord god i don't know all the problems god i don't know what's going on exactly but god you know lord god you see behind closed doors god you see lord god that hurts lord god you see lord god we're we're children are acting out oh god where teenagers are acting out you see oh god where adults are acting out you see what's going on lord god we can't see it but you can see it god and i want you to open up my mind spiritually to realize god the people that are surrounding me that aren't hurts and have needs god i want to see the hungry god i want to see the thirsty come on somebody pray this prayer with me god help me o god and see the sick god help me to see the stranger oh god help me to see those that are in prison who are bound to nicotine who are bound to drugs who are bound to alcohol those that are bound to pornography and sexual sin god help me lord god to pray for them lord like i've never prayed i don't want to judge him because a god judges people but a sheep brings him in close and says come on come into the fold come on come close to me i'll help you i'll support you i'll keep you warm in the wintertime i'll make sure you're fit i'll make sure that you're next to a stream where they're smooth come on i believe god already put somebody in your mind i want you to pray for him right now come on church family i just don't want to teach a lesson on love i want to church this field with love i want to say some god who take this to heart who get a revelation of what the importance is to take others knees oh to take on other people's needs god help us god god i thank you for the boundaries oh god lord i'm so thankful lord god for the young god i thank you for our free program with the whites i i thank you lord god that they see people lord god who have needs and they want to help and they want to serve and they want to add value and they want to bring the salvation message lord in a small group god bless our small groups oh they're going to begin in a little where we god i pray for the anointing the power lord god to fill every one of our leaders lord god i pray the power to fill every one of the members oh god give us compassion give us empathy give us love one for another i want to love my neighbor as myself i just feel like there'll be a little louder prayer going up right now i believe that there was really compassion there'd be some sound going out right now come on there's really love in the house i'm talking about loving your brother i'm talking about loving your neighbor that's the people in this house and that's the people that live in the city that you live in in the county that you live in god help us lord god i don't want to look so far that i miss my brother sitting next to me but i don't want to look so close that i miss the co-worker lord that's hungry that's hurting this in me come on say some god i hear you come on out here i hear i hear travailing going on i hear voices that are being lifted up and said oh god let me see come on i can pray it all day long i want to hear you pray that god help me to see help me to see help me to see help me to see give me the spiritual unction of the holy ghost to minister to the people that need to be ministered to to touch the broken to touch the hurting those oh god there's so many people we work with so many people we rub shoulders with oh god who are hungry and they want to know more gotta pray lord place amanda's in our life like you've never placed before lord god i believe lord god there's people right now who are watching this webcaster who are hungry they've never been to an apostolic church but they're hungry god i pray in jesus name lord lead them to our webcast oh god lead them to youtube god lead them to our facebook account oh god i'm just believing oh god that this message lord has just preached over the airwaves on wplr lord god or wbir lord i'm just believing lord god that we're going to have a revival take place because somebody is gonna see the need to be baptized somebody's gonna see the need for salvation in their life god lead us to them god lead us to them in jesus name they're gonna start singing but come on i want you to continue to pray this prayer right where you are to say god leave it this is is is is is is up oh is this is holy ghost shine brighter your love is this is oh thank you for the response to the word of god today i want you to help me with something children are very good at perceiving right and wrong but children can't hardly comprehend the reason for right and wrong so help me do something my wife and i we're with our daughters we're trying to help them with their fellow students that aren't acting out we're trying we're trying to help them understand that there is a reason that the kids don't just do it to do it there's a reason why it's happening please help help me and and help your children to understand that because that's one beautiful thing about our academy i have never seen a school like our academy they can absolutely turn a child's life around and we understand it's a god thing we're not giving credit to students but but i do believe that god is using students especially in our older classes i i have never seen i was telling somebody this the other day i was telling about our academy i have never seen students come out of a public school system rejected neglected they come in here beat down can't hardly lift their heads up because society has just wrecked them as a last resort their unsaved parent unchurched parent will find our school we'll put them in our school just to get them out of the public school system and i have never seen a school like ours that by the time that student graduates they're confident in themselves they've been filled with the holy ghost they've been baptized in jesus name a kin a kid who wouldn't even lift up their head would never would would stand in a corner would never even talk to people all of a sudden they'll walk across this stage and wave at everyone as they graduate thank you parents our young ones they be trained up to understand why in our older students they be trained do everything you can to add value to kids i'm so thankful thank you moms and dads i'm so thankful for our academy again don't you love our academy aren't you thankful to have an academy to put our students into