Develop a Purpose
by Raymond Sloan
April 19, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Isaiah 40:28-31, 2 Peter 1:3-8, 2 Timothy 2:15, Hebrews 10:19-25

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/raymond-sloan--develop-a-purpose
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Would you pray with me church? Lord today we hunger and we thirst for you. We have come together Lord in your name. We have gathered. We have prayed. We have asked. We have sought you, Lord. We have sung songs of Zion, Lord. We have worshiped you through music and singing. We've worshiped you, Lord God, in our giving and our increase. Right now, Lord, we call on your name because we need your word. Your word, Lord, does the job. Your word works in us. I make myself available again to you, Jesus. I need you. Speak, Lord, I pray. Show us the path. Let faith increase, Lord, so that we could trust you for great things. You're doing a work in us, Lord. And for that, we're thankful.

In Jesus name. Come on everybody say it in Jesus name. >> Thank you so much to all of you that are involved at CAC singers, musicians. Thank you so much to all of our security staff, our guest services, first responders, our teachers in classrooms, those that are involved in whatever aspect. I thank you. Thanks to all of those who showed up in yesterday's interest groups. I'm sure you had a great time and there's other things. We got several more weeks. So, thank you for your involvement with that. Thank you for coming to the house of the Lord. Bringing your praise and worship to the King of Glory. Everybody say, "I'm in the family. >> I'm in the family. >> And it's all right." >> It's all right.

We only have one bad one, but anyway, you don't have to say who it is, right? So, good to see all of you out. You can be seated if you feel like you need to. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day to serve the Lord. What a mighty day to love him and to bless him, to worship him. What a wonderful day. The early 1800s, the world was in the midst of an industrial revolution. Things were actually changing very very rapidly on all fronts. farming communities, the manufacturing sector, in the home and in an office building. Growth was rampant. Inventions were swallowing up the world every day, it seemed. The cotton gin mechanized equipment, elevators for passenger use, trains and steam engines, light bulbs and telegraphs, horseless carriages and assembly lines.

They were they're all part of this revolution of change that was overshadowing not just here in America but all around the world things were taking place. The world was moving forward the heart and the mind of all the countries that were involved. They were trying to make the world a better place. Everybody say better. In our great United States of America, we saw some incredible achievements and changes. Uh now in 2026, we are far crying a far distant from the principle or the origin of a lot of the inventions and things that came out of the 1800s. I I've said multiple times in my life that if I were to have the choice of living in another time and place, it would be smack in the middle of the industrial revolution.

Man, that would be so cool to watch things unfold. Think about it. You're walking miles a day to get to work and within moments this horseless carriage is invented and now you can climb on board and take you. You'd have to walk with a I mean on and on. My mind just blown. You know the Pony Express? >> Yeah. Wouldn't that been a terrible job? >> Huh? 1500 some odd miles in 10 days to deliver a letter. Some of us today are frustrated when our text fails to send. Different time, different world. Different world. It was an exciting time though to be living in our great nation Europe and Asia. they equally they were having growth and they were producing things and uh you France for an example they were on the front lines of of of engineering and development things going on in Germany of course all across the world designs and things that were coming together teams were gathering together and they were putting their ideas and and great successes were happening one such invention that I'd like to take you to today for just just the sake of this message it actually took the world by storm and it was simply called a camera.

Somebody say >> camera. >> Think about this. Think about this. You had the ability to live in the moment and then take that moment, apply it to a steel picture frame, a slate, a piece of paper, a material, and then you could have that and you could show it to everybody. The thought of being in a moment and taking a picture was an incredible feat. Listen to me carefully. I did a little research on this. The oldest photograph that the world can still see that we still have today was actually taken in 1826. Listen to this. It was taken from a window that o overlooked a courtyard in a small village in France. The exposure time of this particular apparatus was 8 hours. Y'all can't wait, can you?

You're like, "Oh, we got to stay eight more hours." Eight hours. You can go online and look at this image. It's it's barely there, but it was such a cool invention. Th this dude right here, this is this is miles ahead of this image up here than the ones that they first had. These boxes, if you will, that would allow light in. And the the images flips up. I mean, this is such a cool thing. With the right sunlight, the proper amount of air quality, the image would be embossed on a plate that had silver sprinkled over it. to think to think to think before this time you could actually freeze time and space on an image. Years later, of course, the world would show up with this particular camera and after the inventors and all those folks that they begin to chisel away and this is what they came up with.

I I'd often wondered I I I know that I'm gonna tell my age now, but I Anybody's seen an old western movie where the guy's going to take a picture of Jesse James and and he puts this cloth over his head and he gets behind this thing and then he backs up and he holds up this thing and all of a sudden, okay, and then they go and they got an image. That's not really true. I I looked that up. It took actually 3 to 10 minutes they had to sit still for that image even with that bright light to turn itself to come back into there and emboss itself ON THE PLATE. NOW YOU WANT NOW YOU'VE OFTEN wondered why those old pictures everybody's like CUZ THEY'RE SITTING STILL FOR LIKE THREE OR FOUR MINUTE.

IMAGINE TRYING TO HOLD YOUR four-year-old still. Don't blink. I I'm I'm with you. All right. Do Do me a favor. Come on. I'm It's a 111. You got a few minutes. Do me a favor, everybody. Get your phone out. Watch this. Some of you aren't getting them out because you already had them out. That's okay. It's all right. Take your phone out and I want you to take a selfie of you and some sitting around you. Come on. Get up close to somebody. Take yourself a selfie there. That's right. Come on, everybody. Take a selfie. Yeah, there you go. Come on. Who? There you go. Come on. Get somebody else in that image. Brother Jeff, you haven't done a selfie in a while. I bet.

Huh? Though my kids make fun of me, Brother Ron, all the time. Cuz I have a short arm. And when I take selfies, it's like right here. You know, Sam takes our selfies now because his arm's like eight feet long and it's all dist. I'm like, "Come on, zoom in a little. Instant. Instant. WHEN YOU PUSH THAT BUTTON ON YOUR PHONE, BOOM, it happened. Did anybody have to wait 30 seconds? Did anybody have to say, "Hey, ready, set, here we go." No, it's done. Milliseconds, fast, no fuss. IN FACT, WATCH THIS. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO COOL. Watch this. IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THAT PICTURE, take another one. Go ahead. Go ahead. Take another one. Go on, take your pictures. Watch how this works.

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER. Some of you are praying hard. Lord, don't let it break my camera. Just I don't know how it is. On on AN IPHONE, NOT ONLY CAN you take the picture, but if you hold it down when you're looking at it, it'll show a couple of seconds of movement. That's right, >> MAN. OUR GREATEST OF GRANDPARENTS WOULD HAVE freaked out to see themselves on this image. >> Listen to me. Listen to me. Things have changed. Easy peasy. You if you don't like the picture, don't worry about it. Just delete it and do it over. >> Hey, my grandbaby from Knoxville, she'll call on sometimes, well, Stephen, I would hope is doing it, my son. and and her image will show up and she'll have cow horns or she'll have a robot head or she'll have a I don't I don't know what that came from and some kind of aperture that or something you can put on that.

It's called an app. And she looked Poppy I look like a giraffe you know she's looking in her teeth and I'm like what is going on with the camera? Boy, we have come a long way from 1826. Few weeks ago, I was in downtown Atlanta working on a job and I had to leave the courthouse to go to a hardware store 2.8 miles away. I could have walked, but it was through really interesting part of downtown Atlanta and I decided not to. >> So, I pull up the great big old UB er that's Uber for us older folk. And I need a car. This is my location. And four minutes later, this car pulls up to the curb and there's nobody driving it. And the I pushed the button and the handle went poof and I opened up a Jaguar and I and I get inside and I shut the door and hello Raymond.

I see we are headed to Home Depot 2.7 miles away. Please f fasten your seat belt. Hold on. No, notice that. I buckled the seat belt. I sat there. There's no driver. Big sign. Presley cross the steering wheel. Do not touch the wheel at any time. And it pulled out in the traffic and it took off. Brother Rob, I'm watching. I'm I'm in this car. I'm I'm committed now because the door's locked. When I got in the screen, the screen between the seats though, everything was happening real time as images. It was showing the car, all the cars around me. It came to a crosswalk. Y'all may have seen I had never done I mean I'm not nobody but I'm in a car now that if I have to talk to somebody it even said if you'd like conversation please say so and we'll come on they can just talk to the folks I was thought about doing that yes I'd like to talk to somebody and this voice come on you just start off in some other language and back up or Chinese or something and the car is just blowing up trying to I don't know listen to technology has changed canes.

>> We got to a crosswalk, bro, Seth, and a guy was walking across in the crosswalk and he had a cane and the cane and the man showed up in the picture, the image right there. I'm like, I mean, it was there. The guys, the dog on a leash, all that showing up and the it's all real time. It gets to Home Depot and it pulls right in and the door said, "Thank you for riding with please give us a good and I get out, shut the door and car takes off." month. Well, what just happened? I was fully expecting George Jetson to walk by. Well, then I had to get back to the courthouse. Guess what I did? Let's try that again. And here it comes.

Listen to me. The screen that I was watching in the car was showing everything in real time. Some of y'all are sitting there going, "Yeah, well, that's easy." Okay, whatever. Whatever. I know it's a challenge for me to drive my own car, >> but I thought, you know what? But if I die in the middle of this car, it's going to be downtown Atlanta and there's four or five hospitals very close. I'll be okay. I'll be okay in the moment. No hesitation. Modern inventions are happening all around us. I'm bringing to you today this concept that through the years things have changed because necessity has brought it to the forefront. Stay with me for a moment. The current generation has no idea, no idea how fast things are actually happening.

I bring the idea today of a camera to you because it has evolved in so many ways so quickly. It has gotten to this place. Uh watch watch this young young people. Watch this. Watch this. Has anybody in this room had a dear family member to pass away that was older than you and you were responsible for somehow taking care of their affairs, their stuff, their furniture, their their things? Anybody? The greatest challenge that all of us face when we do that is what do we do with the what? >> The pictures. My mother passed away. Y'all know that a year and a half ago. And man, all the furniture was easy, man. That gone, man. We can get that gone. But we've got boxes and boxes and albums of pictures.

Does anybody remember pictures? You know what I was told? This is what I was told. I said, "Hey, somebody said, you know what you can do with them pictures? You can take a picture of the picture and put it in your phone. A picture of the picture." Man, we are living in some kind of time, right? A picture of the picture. And now some of you are posting pictures of pictures of pictures of pictures six, seven layers deep. And some of you even have figured out how to edit them. I even I even heard in this past couple of days that somebody in this room was actually at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Somebody was with Adam and Eve. >> SOMEBODY WAS IN ALL THESE PLACES AND I KNOW THEY'RE not that old.

>> Thank you, Sister Mandy, for reminding me that you can AI about anything. And I wonder sometimes what intelligence really is artificially. But anyway, how many of you are struggling with the changes going on in your life? Listen carefully to me. There once was a process in the photography world. Listen, I'm not a photographer. I'm very terrible at it. I can take it. Most of the time, I'm guilty of this for Watch this. We went to the coffee shop yesterday. Didn't anybody take a picture? See, you're living in the moment and you forget. Now you that are out hiking trails, you have to take pictures because you need a break and nobody would ever believe that you were there. I asked brother I asked my friend brother Daniel John, "How come you didn't hike?" He just looked at me.

I ain't hiking. And it had been a picture, right, Brother Dan? Hey, y'all need to Photoshop him in one anyway. Okay, listen to me. Listen, listen. the camera, the apparatus. There used to be a process that you would have to take the pictures 35 millimeter. Anybody remember this? And you would have to then when it was done, you'd have to go and you would have to take them where? >> To where? >> To a developer and they would have to >> develop the film. You would get with the pictures, whether you chose four by six, five, whatever sizes you picked, you would get with those in the envelope. What? >> Negatives. Everything was negative. Everything was a negative. Right, Tim? That's what it was. In fact, you watch.

It's so funny what these young people have no idea. The older folk, you hand them a negative, they go, >> they know why. That's the only way you can see it. Say with me. Stay with me. Say with me. You would have to take your film to a developer. The developer with the right chemicals, the right light exposure, the right red light in the room, if you will. They would have to put make sure the saline went on, the salt, and it would solidify the image that would you had taken. And from there, you could have a photograph. With that photograph, then you could put it in a frame. You could put it in a book, you could hand it to somebody. When something was developed, there was a process involved.

To develop something means you cause it to evolve or unfold gradually in the process of time. You change it in incremental stages. Developing something is not a moment. It's not right now. But it takes a process of steps to be completed. What has been done in the mindset of humanity in 2026 is we are very much in a hurry. We don't have time to wait. We don't have time to process information. In fact, waiting right now is almost a sin. >> Come on. It's almost wrong TO WHERE WE FEEL LIKE, YOU KNOW WHAT, WE'RE having to wait. I I hear people off. I I went to that restaurant. They got great food, but you'll have to wait 10 minutes. When's the longest you waited for a good meal?

>> Don't answer. Don't answer. Some of y'all are mad right now. Think about I had an hour and a half to think I had to wait an hour and a half. All right. Well, there's an option. Leave. And it takes you an hour and a half to get to the next restaurant and wait >> an hour and a half. I'm like, "No, I'm going to stand right here. Either I'm on the road or I'm here, right? It's going to be time. Listen to me. Listen to me." ISAIAH, THE THE old guy, he said it this way. The book of Isaiah 40:28. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, faintth not?

Neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that hath no might. He increases strength. Even verse 30 says, "The youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But listen, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. The problem with that verse Isaiah wrote WAS SIMPLY THIS. YOU HAVE TO WAIT. >> IT'S CALLED A PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT. IT'S CALLED A PROCESS OF THINGS HAPPENING. TO DEVELOP SOMETHING means it's got to unfold. one page at a time. One step at a time. One step that takes you here or TAKES YOU THERE.

THE EVENTS HAVE TO COME TOGETHER FOR YOU TO SAY, "I want a a garden in my backyard. I want tomatoes. I want green beans. And I want corn that grows THIS HIGH." YOU CANNOT WALK INTO YOUR BACKYARD AND SIMPLY GO, "HERE, GIVE IT TO ME." YOU CAN'T EVEN GO TO WALMART AND GET THE GREAT VALUE can of corn, pick it up, and chuck it in YOUR BACKYARD AND EXPECT that ears of corn are going to pop up out of the ground. That's good PREACHING RIGHT THERE. CUZ I'M TALKING TO SOMEBODY WHO DON'T WANT TO WAIT. YOU WANT IT NOW. YOU WANT IT QUICKLY. YOU WANT IT TO HAPPEN, RIGHT? SEE, SOME OF US JUST A FEW MOMENTS AGO IN THIS ROOM, I LOOKED UP AT THE CLOCK AND SOME OF YOU, THE MIRACLE OF GOD IS READY TO UNFOLD IN YOUR LIFE, BUT YOU'RE TOO IMPATIENT FOR IT.

YOU WON'T STAND IN THE PRESENCE OF A HEALING GOD SO THAT HE CAN COME IN AND GENTLY WORK THE WORK. YOU WANT HIM TO SMACK IT ON YOUR HEAD AND SAY, "BOOM, THERE YOU GO." SO THAT THE MIRACULOUS YOU CAN DECLARE WHEN YOU WALK OUT THE DOOR. I COME TO TELL YOU, THERE HAVE BEEN TIMES IN MY LIFE WHEN God worked in a moment. BUT THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME, IT'S A PROCESS THAT HE'S WORKING IN ME. SOME OF Y'ALL CAN TESTIFY TO THE FACT THAT YOU were sick, you had a disease, YOU HAD AN AILMENT, something going ON IN YOU, BUT YOU KEPT PRAYING AND THROUGH THE PROCESS OF PRAYING, YOU ARE STEPPING ONE STEP CLOSER TO YOUR MIRACLE. I'VE COME TO DECLARE TO SOMEBODY TODAY, IF YOU'RE GOING TO DEVELOP WITH GOD, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE IT ONE STEP AT A TIME.

We are reminded that the scriptures tell us time and time and time again there is a process of time. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEMS AND THE PROCESSES. Notice here in the New Testament, follow me for just a moment. I I I've been looking at this verse and I've been looking at these verses for the last month. Probably I've talked about it on several fronts because I'm amazed at this. Maybe you already know this. Stay with me. Second Peter 1 and3 according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Verse four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. Are you with me?

promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Listen to number five. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, listen to what he said. They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the steps that Peter wrote in this particular letter, HE SAID, "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET IT ALL AT ONCE. BUT AS YOU GROW IN THE PROCESS OF TIME, YOU ADD TO one thing another thing.

You add to that thing another thing. You add to those things THESE THINGS. AND THE STEPS THAT YOU GO THROUGH ARE going to bring you to the PLACE THE PROMISE SAYS THIS. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE BARREN. YOU'RE NOT going to be unfruitful. BUT IF YOU'LL TAKE to let THE STEPS HAPPEN IN YOUR LIFE AND DEVELOP these things IN YOUR LIFE, THEN YOU'RE GOING TO BE ABLE to produce fruit and folk are going to be able to look at YOU AND DECLARE THAT'S A CHILD OF GOD. HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? BECAUSE THERE IS FRUIT HANGING ON THEIR LIMBS ON THE VINE. I'VE COME TO TELL SOMEBODY TODAY IN THIS SERIES IN APRIL, WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT FINDING GOD ON EASTER SUNDAY, WE TALKED ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF A RISEN SAVIOR.

LAST WEEK OR THE WEEK AFTER WE TALKED ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE. LAST WEEK, WE TALKED ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE. THIS WEEK, I'M HERE TO DECLARE TO SOMEBODY INSTEAD OF JUST SIMPLY SAYING, "GOD, GIVE IT TO ME NOW WRAPPED UP IN A BOX, YOU NEED TO DECIDE, I WILL DEVELOP IN THE PROCESS OF TIME AND IN THE PURPOSE THAT GOD GIVES ME. I WILL MAKE THIS DECLARATION. I'LL SHOW UP IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. WHETHER ANYBODY ELSE SHOWS UP OR NOT, I'LL COME TOGETHER WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD, AND I'LL PRAY THE PRAYER OF FAITH. I'LL BELIEVE THAT EVERY STEP I TAKE IS THE HAND OF GOD LEADING AND GUIDING MY FOOTSTEPS. WHY? BECAUSE IF I ADD TO THIS WHAT GOD'S TELLING ME FOR THAT, THEN THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN I WILL STAND AS I'M SUPPOSED TO STAND.

A TREE THAT IS PLANTED BY THE WATERSH CAN TRY TO PUSH ME DOWN, BUT THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO. OUR PURPOSE IS IN DEVELOPING OUR DESTINY IN GOD. >> Every step there's something happening. There are changes that are taking place. Adding this one thing to that one thing makes these two things become fruitful in this. I approach this desk today simply to talk to you about the process of your purpose. the process of what God is doing in your life. As you grow and develop in your walk with God, you discover things about yourself. Listen to me carefully. I am weak, >> but he is strong. >> Amen. >> I am frail, but he is mighty. >> I fall down, but he stands strong. I make mistakes, but he never does.

on and on we could go with the differences and the challenges that we face. Why? Because as we find our purpose in Jesus Christ, we then develop what is the call of God working within us. And through that process, we understand that our purpose unfolds as the things that God is doing in us. Come on, somebody. If you're new in God, don't be distracted by your disposition right now. But you add to this thing something else. UH YOU NEED A PRAYER LIFE, GET A PRAYER LIFE. INTO THAT PRAYER LIFE, GET A FASTING LIFE. AND TO THAT FASTING LIFE, GET A BELIEVING. COME ON. SOME OF Y'ALL JUST NEED TO WAKE UP AND RECOGNIZE, I NEED TO BE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. I NEED TO STOP MAKING EXCUSES THAT I DON'T FEEL GOOD OR THAT MY HOME'S FALLING APART.

BUT INSTEAD, YOU SIMPLY NEED TO STAND AND DECLARE, YOU KNOW WHAT WHAT GOD IS DOING IS HE IS ALLOWING ME TO GROW IN THIS PROCESS. >> HALLELUJAH. >> Y'all Okay, I'M GOING TO PASTOR YOU FOR A MINUTE IF YOU'LL LET ME. IF YOU'LL GIVE ME JUST A MOMENT. SOME OF Y'ALL LET the winds OF LIFE PUSH you over and then it TAKES TWO OR THREE DAYS TO GET UP >> BECAUSE OF THE FRAILTY AND THE WEAKNESS OF YOUR SPIRIT. YOU'RE NOT ALLOWING THE DE DEVELOPMENT OF GOD TO WORK IN YOUR LIFE. DON'T BE MAD AT ME BECAUSE I ASK YOU TO BE IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. DON'T BE MAD AT OUR PRAYER COORDINATOR BECAUSE SHE SAYS WE'RE GOING TO PRAY. DON'T BE MAD BECAUSE YOU FEEL LIKE IT'S INCONVENIENT.

>> NO. What we NEED TO DO AS THE FAMILIES, WE NEED TO DECIDE, YOU KNOW WHAT? I'm taking another step towards Jesus. I'm making up in my mind. There's something about living for the Lord that's worth it. I I'm making UP IN MY HEART. YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M GOING TO TRUST God through the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm going to get closer to HIM EVERY OPPORTUNITY I GET BECAUSE THE CLOSER I GET TO HIM, I KNOW THAT I CAN FAIL AND FALL AND FALTER AND HIT THE FLOOR. BUT IF I'M CLOSER TO HIM, I CAN DRAW NEAR AND PULL MYSELF UP ON HIM. AND I'M NOT BY MYSELF. BUT I HAVE DECLARED THAT IN THE PROCESS OF THE PURPOSE THAT GOD IS DOING IN MY LIFE, I AM DEVELOPING INTO SOMETHING FRUITFUL, THAT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ASHAMED, THAT DOES NOT HAVE TO WALK AWAY WONDERING WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MY LIFE.

>> PAUL TOLD THE YOUNG PREACHER TIMOTHY, SECOND Timothy 2:15, YOU READY FOR IT? STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD. a workman that needeth not be ashamed. We use that for preachers a lot. Preacher study. Okay. Google.com study me or let me study thee because we want it quickly. We want it right now in a hurry up moment. I've I've talked about this so many times the last few weeks. It exhausts me. Why? Because there's a lot of things in my life that I did not learn from a book. I didn't learn it from seeing somebody else suffer through it. >> But I learned because I went through it. >> And through it all, I found him faithful. >> In my failure, I still was able to climb up and say, "Lord, I thank you for strength and courage.

Come on. >> Some of you earlier, the Lord was wanting to use you in the mighty way to do miracles, signs, and wonders. And some of you questioned it instantly. As soon as I asked you to be supportive of what God was doing, you questioned it because you know your failures and your faults and your shortcomings. And you think that God is judging you for that. >> That is not at all the way God answers things. >> God says, "If you're available, >> I can use you." Amen. >> There's a reason that a donkey spoke in the scriptures. >> Somebody say, "That's good teaching right there." >> You know why? Because some of us are expecting to be up to this level before God uses us.

And if that were the case, when you got to that level, most likely you would teeter and fall. But the Lord is saying, "I just need you to have a humble heart. I need you to come to me and learn and grow. And in the process of time and development, I can develop you into something if you'll simply have faith to believe. I've had many of you come to me, pastor, you need to pray for this situation. Why? You pray for it. You think God honors my prayer before he honors yours. I'm here to tell you and I declare the word of the Lord that as you develop the purpose of God that he has placed in your life and you give yourself to that, you learn, you grow, you teach, you study, you talk about it, you be a disciplemaker, you be somebody that gives back, somebody that's not fighting with God, somebody that's not trying to rob God, somebody that's not trying to get something over on God.

If you'll simply give yourself to the things of God, you'll understand that it is not instantaneous. Have you ever been sick lay down at night on the bed and say, "Lord, I really don't feel good, but I need rest." And for some odd reason, rest comes to your body. And when the rooster crows in the morning or the clock goes off or when kids come and rattle your cage and you get out of bed, you wonder, "How did I fall asleep? I was in such pain last night." But you know what? Today I feel a little better. How'd that happen? I can tell you how it happened because there's a process of developing you. Every one of us would love to have a ministry to be able to touch somebody and they be healed.

To be able to speak a word into somebody and then be changed. I know that God knows us and I know that God does. Listen to me. He doesn't trust us with that. Because very quickly we would show up on every talk show. We'd be on every podcast saying, "Look what I can do." And we would forget the fact that it is the blood of Jesus that saves and washes and cleanses and heals and delivers and makes free. It's the blood of Jesus. It's the name of Jesus. You know what? Jesus was very kind to the world. He was very kind to his followers in the day. And he simply told them this. They will hate you. >> They will hate you. That's bold talk 2026.

You can't be a hater. Yeah. you just hating right now. Why? Because people don't like that offense. Makes them feel bad. They throw up all these barriers and stuff. Jesus said they're going to hate you. And we get all stood up and mad because the world's not accept. Come on. Come on. Apostolic. This is what we've been looking for. We'll do everything y'all tell us to do. You're not doing everything the Lord's telling you to do. I struggle. Why would we think that the world's just going to come run to our church? I've said this many times. Lord's very gracious to us, man. If we wanted a hundred soul revival, where would we put them? We barely got a big enough tank to walk them through one at a time, man.

We'd have to refill it all the time just cuz water would be splashing out. Listen to me. I love you. I I love the work of God, but there is a process that God is taking us through. Some of you right now are struggling today with who you are and the mess that you've developed in your life. And you wonder, why isn't there fruit? You're holding on. I've come to tell somebody today in the Holy Ghost, he is developing you in your purpose. In your purpose. Notice this writing. Hebrews 10:19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.

Verse 22 said, with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For he that is faithful hath promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching. I exhort you today, get under the blessing of the Lord that he is working in your life. What we felt earlier in this service was the hand of God touching our lives. But he is still here now through the word as powerful as he as he has ever been.

Some of the problem with us many times is that we want God to do it now and we get disheartened and we give up and fear settles in and the trick of the enemy is to speak in your ear. Oh yeah. Where's your God now? Where is he now? Come on. That's always that's spoken of in the New Testament. Where is he that can you speak of this? Where is he? Where is he? I've come to tell you today that as the purpose of God unfolds in your life, you can discover he is working on you. You notice Jesus with the musician come. You notice Jesus while he was walking in shoe leather, he was in the process. We know that Jesus simply could have spoke and everything could have changed.

Agreed? Yeah. He could have just went, "Let this." And there it was. But it took the process of his life for him to walk down a road where a lady with an issue of blood would touch him to have the declaration of he is a healer. It took Jesus standing on a side of a hill with multitudes gathered around him hungry and him to simply say, "What do you have? Let me bless it and multiply it." Because people needed to recognize and understand the power of Jesus Christ. So why was it then on the cross of Calvary that he had to hang there between heaven and earth and say, "It is finished." Do you think that was just a cool statement? You think that was just something that he knew in 2026 they write songs about it and do really cool dramas about it.

No. What he was declaring was simply this. I have gone through the process for my purpose and I am going to fulfill it now. And when he died on the cross that day, that's why all of heaven rumbled and all of the earth crumbled and things began to happen and the veil was rent and things took place on the earth that that nobody can explain. And as he descended down and then he ascended back, the Bible tells us that he had victory over death, hell, the grave. His purpose was for us. I believe that last week, brother Sam took us through discovering purpose. How do you know? How do you find that place? Today, I'm trying to help us to understand how that we then once we've discovered it, we develop it.

We find the place to be Christlike, to be what he wants us to be. Would you stand with me, please, everyone? It's 140. We're okay. I believe that the maturity of the church has shown in the quiet moments when we listen, when the spirit is speaking and we submit ourselves to what it's saying. I believe that in this room, I am convinced 100% that the miracles are sitting and standing in this room right now. And that God at a moment could restore any family, could heal any broken body, could renew any mind, could reestablish footsteps of anybody that's walking in life's path. I believe it's here. Some of us then would even say, "But it's not the Lord's will today for me to be healed or me to be delivered or me to be changed." And that's might be true.

But what if in the process of your purpose, today is your day and the Lord is actually ready to work a work in your life. Would the steps that you've taken get you close enough to hear him say, "Now, now. Now." Lift your hands now. Now, now. Right now, right now. I'm here. I'm here. I'm ready. I can do it. I can do it. Believe in it. That's why you've been going through what you've been going through. I never left you. I never forsake you. I was with you through all of those steps because today I want to deliver you from where you I want to change your situation right now. Could it be that today in this room the simple miracles of Jesus can unfold themselves and we want to all be astonished because of the steps that we've been going through.

Look around you today. There are chairs that are empty. But look around. There are full chairs. people are responding to the things of God. Today, as you learn to develop your purpose, you find that not only did Jesus have a purpose, but I do. I have a purpose to love him, to multiply, to be fruitful. I want to invite somebody to this altar today and say, 'Lord, I know that you are doing a work in my life. I know that because I have wept so many tears. I've struggled with so many things. >> I'm believing, Lord, that it is the process that you're taking me through. That's my holy heart. >> And I believe, Lord, that you can finish the work in me if I will learn the processes that you're taking me through.

Some of you old-timers in here today, right now, you have all capability and confidence to walk up to some of these young folk, grab them, and hug them real close and say, "I know where you have been because I too was there." But in the process of my purpose, the Lord kept me. And I want to invest in you and believe that God is going to finish what he's doing in you. God's not left you alone. Your home is not destroyed. How do you know? Because God has done a work in my life just like he's doing in yours. because you learn the process of your purpose that he's faithful above all. Would you lift your hands right now to Come on, lift your hands to him right now.

Hey Jesus, you are faithful. There is something happening in my life, Lord. Come on, somebody. Lord, you're working a work in me. And I don't have all the answers right now. I don't, Lord. But I know that I'm adding to virtue, temperance, and I'm adding to temperance, godlin. I'm adding the things so that I can bear fruit. >> And you're working in me, Lord. And >> I'm developing, God. I'm gradually, intentionally, Lord, I am stepping closer to you. My testimony, Lord, has changed through the years. >> I know, God, that right now, Lord, I could testify that you're a healer because I once was sick and you healed me. I know that you've never left me. Come on, this altar's open. Somebody needs to find some time to reconnect with the master >> in the process of what God is doing in your life.

He's not neglecting you. >> He is not trying to embarrass you. He is not trying to destroy you. What he is doing is he is working through you in the process of your purpose. >> Come on somebody. >> The Lord loves you. >> Come on. Learn, grow, invest. Let him do the work. You put in the work. >> Study about him. >> Look for him. >> Oh, come on, somebody. That's right, Jesus. >> Jesus, you are developing me, Lord God, into what I can be fruitful >> in you. I can be fruitful, Lord God, and >> show fruit, Lord, for what you're doing. Come on. That's right. This altar's open. >> Come on. Bring your prayer life right now. Bring your prayer life. >> That's right.

Lord, I I don't know that I have all the answers. >> I don't know, Lord. I know that I messed up. I know that I'm falling. I know that I'm getting up. And I know that I'm still coming to church. And I know that I'm still spending time with you every day. It's the process, Lord. It's the process of my purpose. >> Come on, somebody. In the name of Jesus. Come on, let the spirit of the Lord work in you right now, Lord. Confirm your word. Confirm it in me, Lord. >> Signs following God. Help me, Lord, as I pursue you. Come on. That's right. Get real with God. >> Come on. Get real with God. Jesus. >> Come on, somebody. I'm developing this. The purpose of God is unfolding in me.

I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord. That's right. Come on. >> You can worship him in whatever situation you're in right now. You can lift your hands to him right now. >> Jesus. Jesus. >> Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord. That's right. Come on. Prayer. Prayer will make you different. Prayer will change your life. >> I love you, Lord. I need you, Lord. >> Holy is your name. >> Oh, come on. That's right. Get up close to him. Lord, you're doing a work. >> Lord, you're do even my failures, my faults. I'm falling. I'm getting up the process. Lord, there's a purpose in me and I'm growing through it, God. I'm drawing closer to you, Lord. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. >> That's right. Come on, Lord. I'm going to love you and honor you through it all.

>> I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to walk away. I'm going to learn and grow through it, through the process. Lord, I'm going to draw closer to you, Jesus. >> That's right. >> Come on. Won't you reach over, pray with somebody close to you, >> Lord, honor their faith today, Jesus, the work you're doing in them, Lord. Draw them closer to you. Pull them up close to you, Lord. In the process, there is a purpose, Lord, that you're working in them. Hey. Yeah, that's right. That's right. In the name of Jesus. >> In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Lord, you're doing the work. You're doing the work. >> That's right. Come on. Pray with somebody. Get a hold of them.

Come on. Don't give up. Don't quit now. Keep going through the process. >> Come on. There's a purpose here. You're developing. You're moving. You're growing. You're learning. You're learning about yourself. You're learning about the church. You're learning about his word. You're learning about the power of the Holy Ghost. You're learning about the purpose of God in your life. Come on. That's right. Jesus, I trust you with it, Lord. >> Jesus, I trust you with it, Lord God. That's right. In the name of the Lord. >> Come on, get up close to somebody. Pray with them. >> Jesus, thank you, Lord, for the work you're doing in their lives. The name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. >> Closer.

>> In the name of Jesus. That's right. In the name of Jesus. Oh God, help me to develop into what you would want me to be. Let me learn Lord. Let me grow in the process. Let me add to Lord what is good and help me God to push back the things that are negative and bad. >> The name of Jesus. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus. >> Jesus. >> Jesus. Oh, that's right. Come on. The working of the spirit of God in your life. If you were to go to Old Testament, you'd find that they came out of slavery and bondage. Some decisions were made and they walked. They just kept walking, Brother Seth. They just kept walking. 40 years later, generations died off, all the stuff they've been through, they finally get to the edge and God gives the command.

All right, now I need you to go over and possess the land. Well, that's a cool story, right? Man, we don't know what those 40 years of circling, what their thoughts were, their teachings were. How do you explain 3,000 plus people a day dying? That's what the numbers would have been through a generation. Where would you put those bodies? They're learning. They're growing. They're complaining. God's providing. They're drinking water. They're eating stuff out of heaven. They're learning. The cool thing about them going over into the promised land is the word of the Lord says to them, "In all that you've learned in this walking, I removed an entire generation, and you're now going to go in and possess lands that you did not conquer. You're going to eat from vineyards and gardens that you didn't plant.

You're going to live in houses that you didn't build. You're going to do things in this this place, this promise that I've given you that you didn't have anything to do with. But my purpose in you is not to leave you in bondage. My purpose is to deliver you and bring you to promise. Take your time. Study Levitical, Deuteronomy. Study it the word. God spoke to his mouthpiece and said, "You better tell them something. For the last 40 years, I have seen them through. I have provided. I have protected. They have worshiped me. They have loved me. And I have been their God, and they have been mine. I've dealt with all their faults, failures, mess ups, all the stuff. But they're going to go into this new land and there's going to be other gods.

There's going to be other thought processes. And if they're not careful and if they don't get it inside of them now, when they go over, they're going to be so confused and they're going to marry into other tribes and other gods are going to be their gods. And if they're not established in who they are, and if they push against this process of their purpose, they're going to be destroyed. And guess what happened? They get over there, Brother Jeff, it didn't take long at all. They're marrying wives, tribes of false gods. They're changing their habits. They wonder why they're no longer eating mana, why they're having to work for things now that they didn't. I've explained that very briefly to you for this reason. There's a place called heaven that I want to go to.

Anybody else still interested in heaven? Well, there's a process to go through. And what you're doing now is preparing these little ones for what God has for them. Listen to me. It's going to take a mountain of faith in this hour to push back the offense of the enemy that's coming after this generation. Would y'all stand with me right now? We're going to pray one for another as we leave. Lord, thank you for our time together. You are developing us, Lord, with purpose, God. So that we can be Lord a light in a dark world. So that we can be salt to savor. Lord that we can be a candle Lord God that can people can see and find you today. Lord I plead your blood over every individual, every family, every home that's in this room.

I rebuke the enemy Lord God. I rebuke doubt and fear that would try to overwhelm them in the name of Jesus. Deliverance comes in Jesus name. Today Lord I ask you to move in their hearts and lives in this process Lord of your purpose. We are being developed Lord for the hour in which we live. We're going to trust you for it God. We're going to be fruitful. We're going to multiply. Things are going to be added to the church to individuals as we grow in you. The name of Jesus. You are the faithful God. And we trust you for that Lord every day in Jesus name. We believe you for it. We love you and we honor you in the name of Jesus.