Transcript of a published sermon by Bishop Stephen Willeford, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Thankful for a Church with Apostolic in Its DNA
- He opens with praise, thankful to belong to a church that has apostolic in its DNA — the word of God, prayer, fasting, believing in His miracles, and believing He is still working wonders.
- God has said He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh in the end time, and the Spirit of the Lord is what will guide the church through the perilous happenings of the last days.
- The Lord is our helper, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of the living God — it is a church of victory because He is a God of victory.
The Text: You Are the Temple and the Building of God
- He continues the message begun on Building Fund Sunday a couple of weeks earlier: the physical building is the template, but the focus is God using physical building as an analogy for building our lives for His glory.
- From the text: know ye not that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you; if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy — and that temple is you.
- Backing up in the same chapter: we are laborers together with God, God's husbandry, and God's building; Paul, as a wise master builder, laid the foundation, another builds on it, and every man must take heed how he builds, for no other foundation can be laid than Jesus Christ.
- Building our lives is not God's responsibility alone — we partner with Him and allow Him to implement the vision and blueprint He has for our lives.
- Except the Lord builds the house, those who build labor in vain; present and future decisions are to be built from biblical principles and God's truths.
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11
God's Blueprint: A Plan and a Specific Purpose for Every Life
- He briefly reviews the basic elements of building from the earlier message: a need, a vision that meets the need, planning, prayer, blueprints, action, cost, and rewards; every building project begins with a plan to answer a need.
- God has a plan and a vision for our building — our lives — that meets needs He sees; Jeremiah captures God saying to Israel, I have plans for you, I have a destiny for you.
- Alongside the corporate purpose God has for the church in its area and globally, each person has a specific purpose God intends to be fulfilled by His help and our willingness.
- There are two important days in a life: the day you were born, and the day you find out why; we are His craftsmanship, His workmanship — literally His masterpiece — created for Him and, as Colossians says, created for His purpose.
- A calling is a purpose with a divine touch; God's purpose for a person is different from any purpose anyone else has for them, and it must be discovered.
- If we aim at nothing, we will hit it; he asks each listener what they are aiming at, and whether people in the future will look back and say that your life helped change theirs.
Scriptures: Jeremiah 29:11; Colossians (book-only, as spoken)
Finding God's Will Always Involves Prayer
- The building project was seasoned with prayer from the start — the original letter called the church to season their thoughts concerning the matter with prayer, because God's will was to be the deciding factor.
- They even gathered on the property one Wednesday night to pray over what would be built there — blessing every service, the word, the singing, and the people who would come — and none of those prayers were in vain.
- God was not in the dark about them: they did not yet know the property that would be theirs, but God knew exactly where they would be in 2022.
- He urges everyone to make God's vision and plan for their life a prayer focus during this present week of prayer and fasting — sometime in the next 24 hours, pray for God's purpose and God's will.
- God is not finished with anyone; discovering His will does not have to be strenuous, and when finding and fulfilling our place in His plan becomes most important to us, we will find it — God is not a tease and does not mean to frustrate us.
- There is a blank inside of us that only purpose can fill; when we find that vision with the divine touch, we will be fulfilled, God will be pleased, and others will be blessed.
Baptized into the Body: All-In Kingdom Service
- Take action: good intentions do not by themselves produce the needed result — good intentions are many, disciplines are much fewer; it is time to move off dead center, stay involved, stay committed, and stay plugged in.
- Paul in First Corinthians chapter 12 talks about being baptized into the body: by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.
- Beyond the salvation baptism there is a kingdom-service baptism — immersing everything we are: our desires, priorities, values, choices, energy, commitments, schedule, talents, and finances.
- He retells the cartoon of the man being baptized who held his wallet up above the water to keep it from being immersed: baptism means going all the way under, letting someone else have control while we lose control — we don't stop at the toes, the knees, or the waist.
- Just do a cannonball into the kingdom of God; the days of total commitment are not over, and being baptized into kingdom service is not part-time attendance, part-time giving, or commitment only when it is convenient.
- When any of us do this we will no longer be who we used to be, and when servants gather together, everyone is built up.
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12
From Blueprints to Construction: Action and Godly Counsel
- Building physically calls us to action: the project moved beyond talking, planning, and blueprints to signs going up, sewer lines out, and the foundation, walls, girders, and roof rising — a vision cannot remain only a plan in the mind.
- To make a vision a reality takes slowing down, being intentional, planning, and then taking action to begin to build.
- The architects met with every department leader, beginning with the pastoral staff, to hear everyone's wish list; not everything on the list could be built for lack of money, but the input of others was needed to know how to build.
- To be and build God's building we need God's input and influence through prayer, fasting, and His word, and secondly godly counsel — for younger people, parents, spiritual leaders, pastors, and elders; all of us need people to speak counsel and wisdom into our lives.
- The instruction and inspiration received from mentors and key spiritual influences has helped us be what we are today; the vision becomes a plan, then action — God will do His part, and we can do our part.
The Cost of Building: God Wants Our Best, Not Leftovers
- Building has costs: the land and building were going to cost 3.3 million, paid with a loan that was never paid late and often paid with extra toward the principal; having a vision carries the cost of meetings, consultants, and drawings, and then the cost of action — hiring, materials, labor, and utilities.
- We must ask what we are willing to do, pay, give, or give up to get what we want; there is a price for moving forward and a price for staying where we are, and the best end of the deal is to pay the price to move forward in God.
- It is important to narrow the distance between where we are now and where we want to be in the future, and to start now; he asks, can you afford faithfulness, holiness, discipleship, and kingdom involvement — the capital is our willingness to pay the price.
- Some of the costs of serving the Lord are the denial of self — Jesus prayed, not my will, but yours be done, and Paul counted all things lost — and a willingness to give ourselves, our time, our money, and our talents; everybody has something to give.
- Throughout Scripture, whenever a lamb or a sheep is mentioned, the word that keeps emerging as synonymous with them is sacrifice: God used animal skins to cover Adam and Eve's sin, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all made sacrifices involving sheep, and so did the first Passover, the tabernacle, and the temple.
- Those sheep were a valuable resource and also future income, yet God said He wanted the best one, the perfect one — not the maimed or blemished one, and not our leftovers; He is still asking for our best talent and the best and most of our time.
- He tells of God's prompting earlier this year, in January, about an amount to give to a couple of different ministries: he could have kept it in his investment as future income, but God said, I want that now — and what seems a sacrifice now, God always takes care of.
- He has sensed the same hesitation over the future in students choosing a Bible college track and in their parents, but if someone is called and God's hand is on them, God wants us to hand our valuable resource now, and our future, into His hands.
- We shrink back from paying the price through fears: not enough time margin, being strapped financially, being too old or too young, fear of failing, a spouse or family who won't understand, or looking foolish — but identifying with Him, taking up our cross, and sacrificing are part of the cost of building.
The Rewards: Salvation's Payback and an Inheritance Reserved in Heaven
- They stepped forward in faith without having the 3.3 million when they started, trusting God's hand on the project and in the people of God — and the reward is the building itself: the property and loan paid off, adjacent properties purchased, and getting to worship in it.
- There are salvation paybacks when we let God build salvation in our lives: the burden of sin and guilt gone, sins washed away when we took the step of faith to be baptized, peace with God, and the joy of the Lord — spirit-filled people can be the happiest people in the world through mosquito bites, flat tires, and financial stress.
- The greatest reward of kingdom service will be heaven: First Peter says He has begotten us again into an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled — imperishable, beyond the reach of change in a world where everything else changes — reserved, literally watched and guarded so nothing can touch it.
- A present reward is the personal fulfillment of knowing we are doing His will and are all in and committed, rather than living under the conviction of something we should have done or said.
- Another reward is others' lives being changed: he will never forget the first person he baptized — a teenage boy of about sixteen, when he himself was not much older — and the cleansing, power, and presence of God he felt in that baptistery; last week in children's church at least three or four children received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and one little girl's blessing moved her father to begin speaking in tongues when she came to him after the service.
- He closes by having everyone stand and offer themselves to God, praying that each one will find and fulfill the blueprint and destiny God has for every specific individual.
Scriptures: 1 Peter 1:4
Scripture index: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11; Jeremiah 29:11; Colossians (book-only, as spoken); 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Peter 1:4.
well i'm thankful to be in a church that has apostolic in its dna things like the word of god prayer to god fasting unto god the word of god believing in him believing in his miracles believing that he is still working wonders and that he is a great god would you stand together with me right now and i want us just to give praise to that great god lord we do we praise you right now i thank you for your church i thank you for your church oh god that you've permitted us to be a part of i thank you for it and thank you for apc in particular thank you that in our dna is the apostolic traits that you have instilled in your apostolic church we thank you o lord we thank you we thank you we thank you there's a lot of things that are talked about and described about happening in the end time but one of those is god saying i will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and yet we know there are perilous times perilous things perilous happenings that are talked about in those same last times but greater than all of that and what will guide us through those perilous happenings whether it be in world in general or in our life is the spirit of the lord the lord is our helper the writer said we could boldly say the lord is our helper we can also boldly believe and say the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of the living god it's a church of victory because he's a god of victory yes lord we thank you for that tonight it raises a praise in our hearts there are outlines available and if you would like one and if you just remain standing for another few moments we're going to read the text if you would like to receive an outline the ushers have those if you just lift your hand just leave it for a moment so they can see it and then get to you i'm going to continue the message that the lord gave me for our building fund sunday a couple of weeks ago i was not able to finish everything there but god was finished for that particular point in time and that's always the right time to be finished but the template we used was the building of this building the natural building the physical and of course god in his word uses physical building as analogies to building our life so what i'll be focusing on tonight is not so i'll reference the building of this building and give some analogies but really the focus is the building of our lives for the glory of god and first corinthians chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 are the texts that we will use tonight to begin and he says one of these building analogies know ye not that you are the temple or the building of god and the spirit of god does dwell in you if any man defile the temple or of god him shall god destroy for the temple of god is holy and emphasis on which temple you are and then if you back up in that same chapter and going back to verses 9 through 11 we are laborers together with god and then he says we are god's husbandry and then he says we are god's building according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder and paul was certainly that i have laid the foundation and another man builds thereon but let every man take heed how he builds thereupon for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is jesus christ so he says it very plainly in this text and in many others that we are his building and so it's not only his responsibility to build but up to us to partner with him and that to allow him to implement and build and construct what he has as a vision and the blueprint that he has for our lives the old testament says except the lord builds the house they that build it would labor in vain in other words just trying to build our life on our own and by our own designs and our own desires that will be vain in the end what he's simply saying is build your life build your decisions present decisions and future decisions from biblical principles from god's truths to be the building that god wants us to be god bless you you may be seated and the first page of the outline i'm just going to briefly review because i was able to touch those things in the message a couple of sundays ago the basic elements of building there's a need then there's a vision that meets that need there's planning there's prayer there's blueprints there's action the actual building there's cost and there's rewards the vision that is had before something is built is to answer a need every building project begins with a plan to answer a need spiritually speaking and about our life god has a plan or a vision for our building our lives that will meet needs that he sees that's what we're after we have personal desires and personal needs and god cares about them but the main care the main priority is what are god's needs what does he see that my life could answer that's why he has the vision he has for our lives of course there are plans and blueprints needed for physical buildings but just like that god has blueprints or plans and a purpose for every person and jeremiah 29 11 captures that god saying to israel i have plans for you i have a destiny for you and then god has a vision for each life specifically god has a purpose for you specifically we are a part of a corporate body when it come but when it comes to god building us and comes to god god's purpose we we serve a general purpose as apc what god wants apc to be here in the st louis area and globally but each of you have a specific purpose that god has intended to have fulfilled by his help and by your willingness someone has said there's two important days in your life the day you were born and the day we find out why we are on this earth and why we were born and of course god says through paul we are his craftsmanship his workmanship literally translated his masterpiece created for him he goes on to say in colossians and created for his purpose so we weren't just some little bundle of flesh that came into saint anthony's hospital in in my case that's when it was located down in south st louis or wherever you were born not just some little bundle of flesh that came to a family that's included that's a part of it but god had a specific plan and has one for your life and he wants us to serve his kingdom this is where we'll start going a little more in depth god sees you as serving him and his kingdom he has a calling for you a simple but yet i think profound definition of calling is a purpose with a divine touch there are many good purposes to have in our life to live for to be built for but the purpose that has his touch the purpose that has a divine touch there should be a desire in us to want that kind of a purpose and a calling that has a divine touch that makes it different than any other god's purpose for you is different than any other purpose that someone else has or that you or i may have for ourselves and of course it's very important that we discover our god-sanctioned vision and plan for our life what does god sanction god help me to know that and find that out and he wants us to do that i put on the second page if we aim at nothing we will hit it if there's no goal or the no plan we will achieve exactly that now god has a plan but then it's up to us to discover and implement that plan that he has and i posed this question that sunday but it bears repeating what are you aiming at what is your vision for your life it's good to have a vision for our family that's important it's good to have a vision for what god uh wants his church to be and do but the more important is god what is your vision for my life that doesn't mean that any one of our lives are more important than someone else's life or more important than the church but the purpose of the church and the vision of the church will be fulfilled as each one of us find and fulfill that purpose will history show and will some one or several someones be able to look back i'd like for you to really consider these questions and if you take the the sheet home just just go back over these will people in future look back in the history of your life and say he or she helped change my life did they influence their brothers and sisters in the body of christ did we change and impact apostolic pentecostal church and of course finding god's will finding his vision and your purpose will always involve prayer now we had prayer for this building um i showed the excerpt from the letter that we had originally written it was calling for us to season ourselves with with prayer and then and season this matter season all of your thoughts concerning this matter we were talking about the building of this building and what would be our future we didn't know where we would end up we didn't know there was a 901 barracks few at that time we were as the old saying is we were in the dark as far as that is concerned but god is light god wasn't in the dark about us he knew exactly where we would be in 2022 so that's why we seasoned our thoughts with prayer we wanted god's will to be the deciding factor we even came out here one wednesday night i think it was instead of having service there we came out and gathered on the property and just gathered to pray together over what would end up being here and i remember that prayer meeting and i remember prayers like god bless every service that is held there bless the word of god as it goes forth there bless the the singing and the worship and blessed people who will come upon this property none of those prayers were in vain none of the prayers that you have and will pray about god what is my purpose god is listening to those believe and pray believing that god is hearing us and sometimes when we don't fully understand or know yet what the purpose is it can feel like did god hear me yes he did hear you and so finding the will of god will always involve prayer talk to god about your purpose hear from god about your purpose and i mentioned it that sunday and i feel to mention again i mentioned this upcoming week of prayer and fasting and some of you may have already done this but the encouragement was make god's vision for your life god's plan for your life a prayer focus and a prayer point we're right in the middle of this week of prayer and fasting so there's time to focus on that and i want to encourage every one of us those here those of you that are watching online let make that a prayer focus point this week in fact sometime in the next 24 hours just make a mental note to pray for god's purpose and god's will now that does not mean we are not already doing god's will and some of god's will but there's a future out ahead of us god's not done with any one of us god's not finished with us our work is not done there's more to get to be involved in when i look ahead at the work of god in my life i don't think oh god i want to retire and i know we've been talking about that around here but as far as god's purpose we're not nobody's retiring from that and it excites me to know there's some future there's some future boxes i can fill there are some future plans and vision that god has and i need and we need to pray about that discovering god's will doesn't have to be strenuous or hard it doesn't mean we always receive the answer but know this god wants us to know his will when it becomes important listen to this this instruction here when it becomes most important to you and i to find and fulfill our place in god's plan we will find it i put an exclamation point point behind that statement because that's how it should be made when we want it and when it becomes most important to us god won't hide it from us god is not a tease god does not mean to frustrate you about what is your plan for my life you will find it and only will you find it you will feel it and you will be fulfilled in that there's something in us there's a blank inside of us that only purpose can fill in we all need purpose in life and when we find that touch that vision with the divine touch we will be fulfilled and when we find his will god will be pleased and others are going to be blessed there are so many blessings to this and you will have fulfilled the intentions that he has for your life so i would just say and there's two little words there at the beginning of that one sentence take action take action i didn't highlight them i didn't have christie highlight them but maybe maybe you can circle them or underline them or highlight them in some way take action in kingdom service it's time to move off of dead center as far as god's will and plan for our life you've prayed about you've thought about you've talked about kingdom involvement and kingdom service and you've talked and thought and prayed about saying yes to god's prompting and the affirmation of others to step into some type of ministry are service but good intentions do not in and of themselves produce the needed are the result that we want good intentions are many disciplines are much fewer it's time to be involved i just want to stop and this is another one of those points i'd like to just be sitting in the office individually with each of us to talk about this and say it's time to be involved it's time to be active in the church and i know that i am somewhat teaching and preaching to the choir tonight that there is activity and there is involvement what i'm saying is stay involved stay committed stay plugged in and if your involvement is too limited then move off of that dead center just we're going to be the mission and be the church paul in first corinthians chapter 12 talks about being baptized into the body and so many times and it says here by one spirit are we all baptized into one body there's a salvation baptism but there is also a kingdom service baptism in other words baptizing everything we are our desires our priorities our values our choices our energy and our commitments i've told you the story before about the guy that got baptized and uh he was not quite the the the minister talked to him about how that's a total commitment and it's going to be a transformation and even talked a little bit about that means even your finances and there's the it's a cartoon story and picture and the last cartoon is the man's all the way under the water and is holding his wa his wallet up above the water to keep it from being fully immersed and fully baptized god wants to baptize every aspect of our life we are baptized and when we talk about water baptized right we say immersion we say go all the way under in jesus name which means letting somebody else have control and means us losing control well that's baptism means the same thing in kingdom service let god immerse you all the way under and we lose control of our schedule and we say god my schedule is your schedule my talents are your talents my finance is your finance when we get baptized we don't just stick a toe in we don't even go into just our feet or just our knees and we don't stop when it gets up to our waist now that's about as high as that get except when we baptize some of these little ones and then it goes to their neck but we don't even stop there because we talk about we say baptism and it's true this word that's used here is to plunge or dip under we are also baptized in kingdom service immersed or plunged under um just do a cannonball into the kingdom of god just grab your knees get on the board and do a cannonball into kingdom service the days of that kind of commitment are not over i'm seeing it here i'm seeing it all over the place now i know there's the other but i'm not going to go there tonight i'm just saying the days of kingdom total commitment are not over i refuse to believe there are only shallow end of the pool apostolics i know too many that are in the deep end i refuse to believe there's only waiting apostolic ap seers but we are all in all in being in the church being baptized here's what it's not part-time attendance part-time giving part-time service not commitments when it's convenient not interrupted or preempted by other life demands our personal preferences are letting somebody else do it now but being baptized into kingdom service is all the way in and when any of us i promise you when any of us do this we will no longer be who we used to be and there are testimonies all over this place that you would say when i did the cannonball in the kingdom service it changed my life it changed the lives of others someone said this when servants gather together everyone is built up and they use that word servants on purpose when we come to serve and we could be concerned about what i have to give and how i need to empty myself out but if there's some other servants around you when servants gather together everyone is built up and i just want to stop and say that sunday morning the first part of this was what's a preached message this last part which is a taught bible study is one of your signs it's a signal that you have been waiting for it's the instruction it's like putting the pencil in your hand to finish the blueprints that god has for your life it's only what you have been waiting for but what you are secretly hoping to attain the vision and the plan you want this when you build physically and we've talked a little bit about action already i want to drill down a little bit more in that building physically calls us to action we we talked about it we prayed about it and we've got a few pics that uh describe what what started happening when we moved beyond just talking about it and just planning for it they started putting signs up the sewer lines were out and the building starts going up there's part of the walls there's part of the foundation some of the girders and the roof began to to go up this was action here planning and preparing and giving all of that was necessary and the little field firm had to draw our plans but we can't just leave them as plans we can't just leave them as just thoughts in our mind i want to be involved i want to do this i want to do that in the kingdom of god they couldn't remain just blueprints but it moved beyond blueprints to the construction of the building that we are in in other words to make a vision a reality whatever it is that you and god have been talking about in your life whatever desire you have to build in your life or to have your life to house it takes just slowing down and thinking and making that vision a reality and be intentional and slow down to plan and then take action to begin to build and so we took the the action and another important thing as we began to think about and plan and it was interesting the architects wanted to meet with every department leader and they they started with the pastoral staff and then went all the way through out and john littlefield said we just want to hear from everybody we want to hear their wish list man there was pages we don't have everything that was on that list i'm just telling you because we didn't have the money to build all that everybody was wishing for but thank god for the wishes thank god for the vision thank god for for the desire but we had to have the input of others to help us to know we had to have the contractor we had to have the architect to be and build god's building we need god's input and influence through prayer and fasting and his word and then secondly we need godly counsel his word his spirit in the case of younger people parents spiritual leaders pastors elders let let people speak into your life and this is for every age and a lot of times we do talk about the younger people allowing folks to mentor them but all of us need people to speak counsel and wisdom into our lives and to be the building that god would have us to be what it will take and all probably everybody in here could say the input that we have received from others from key spiritual influences in our life has helped us to be what we are today instruction and inspiration that can come from mentors in our lives the vision becomes a plan and then it becomes action and action is where we get involved to take action god will do his part and we can do our part there are also costs involved i've got a couple of slides about this i'm glad some of this is behind us but building cost and uh when we uh began we uh put those thank you brother eric so land and building was going to cost us 3.3 uh million who knows what it would be today but at that time uh early 2000s and of course we had paid in cash because of the giving and the saving of god's people and so there was a loan that was there and then every month we got this little notice um there said this is what you what you owed a cash bank and i don't think we were ever late with a payment and many of the payments that were made there was a little additional put to that to eat away and to to take away from the the principal and help us to be able to pay that loan eventually off you know you can't just want something right we've got to ask ourselves what am i willing to do what am i willing to pay what am i willing to give or give up to get what i want if we're going to build anything in our lives and it be the building it has cost it will cost you something having a vision has cost as far as the church was concerned it cost us meetings and consultants and preliminary drawings and then it has the cost of action the hiring of those individuals and purchasing the materials and paying the labor and installing and engaging utilities there is a cost everything has a price there's a price for moving forward and there's a price for staying where we are there's a price either way it's best the best end of the deal is to pay the price to move forward in god and to let him build the building it's important to narrow the distance you know what you have dreamed about you know what you have thought about you know what god has spoken to you about you know what you have been prompted to do as far as the work and the kingdom and service and living far and with god we must narrow the difference between where we are now and where we want to be in the future and that needs to start now don't wait till tomorrow or next week but start narrowing the distance and sometimes we don't know cert we don't know all of the steps to take but we know to pray we know to make ourselves open and willing to and be willing to pay the price it's a sacrifice it's costly to fully serve god and i read this question today in some final prep and it stirred me i want to present it to you can you afford faithfulness can you afford holiness and discipleship and kingdom involvement you have the capital in your willingness to pay that price some of the cost and i listed it here some of the costs in serving the lord there's the denial of self jesus did that our example he prayed not my will but yours be done lord paul offered himself said i'm now ready to be offered i count all things lost and then we must accept or have a willingness to give these are some of the costs if we will be what god wants us to be and build what he wants us to build in our life we have to possess a willingness to give ourselves our time our money our talents and everybody has something to give everybody has something to give i just instruct the bible helps us don't be foolish and don't be stingy with your self you know when you begin to look through scripture when a lamb or a sheep is mentioned in scripture you consistently find one word that keeps emerging as being synonymous with lambs and sheep and that word is sacrifice that's what they used to offer sacrifices to the lord god used the skins of animals to cover the sin of adam and eve abel noah abraham isaac jacob all made sacrifices involving sheep the first passover then the tabernacle plan and the temple plan in the economy of the livestock and in the agricultural world there is the high cost of livestock those sheep meant something to that shepherd that sheep was a valuable resource it also meant future income and then god says i want the best one i want the perfect one i won't accept the one you're going to have to kill anyway the one that has a maimed leg or the one that has a blemish god's exaction was i want to receive the best he is still asking for our best what is valuable it would be much easier to teach this lesson and be able to say you know all god wants is the leftovers giving the leftovers of your economy and giving what you think you can afford to give but god wants our best talent he wants the best and the most of our time and it may affect what we are now it may take a valuable our time and our talent that is valuable god knows that he he's not being ignorant about that when he asked he just wants us to give him his all so that the best can be built for his kingdom and for his sake in our lives when i read that little phrase that those sheep were they also meant not only a valuable resource now but they were giving away future income i've had experiences and you have too when god prompted on me and he spoke to me earlier this year in the month of january about a an amount to give to a couple of different ministries and uh i started thinking future i could keep that in my investment i could keep that in but god said i want that now he didn't force me well i got a little miserable in the times i thought about not doing it but that wasn't god's force that was my flesh kind of thinking about like these shepherds could have thought about future income and this isn't just about money it's about career it's about how you would spend your life and many times um in talking with students and in talking with parents of students i have sensed some reluctance in particular when students were choosing a bible college track i sense some hesitancy about the future the future but if somebody is called and god's hand is upon them god wants us to hand our valuable resource now and our future into his hands and what all of us have figured out and found out and lived out that when we do what god wants us to do what seems to be and is a sacrifice now and we don't see how it's going to be worked out financed out how it's going to be worked out god always takes care of it give the sacrifice he here's you know sometimes we shrink back from paying the price it's a human default it it's it's not just one of us here tonight it's it's all of us have kinds of fears that says i don't have enough time margin in this season of my life i don't have enough time i'm strapped financially or it's really not all that big a deal to just give him all or i'm too old or i'm too young or i want to make sure 100 this is god's will and it's not going to make any difference anyway what what i do or what my family does are here's some other fears that we have from total commitment i'm afraid i'll fail or i'm not a leader or i i want i want a little more comfort i want a little more assurance or my spouse won't support this or my family doesn't understand or i look foolish or people will think i'm crazy well some of those boxes probably will get checked because not everybody understands the principle of sacrifice and giving our all to the lord so to identify with him to take up our cross to sacrifice and accept and have a willingness to give those are all part of and not the only cost that when we want to build something i'm thankful for every commitment that was made that helped us fulfill to pay the price for this building and yes there were days we wondered will we really be able to pay the price and when we looked ahead and saw figures like was up here a while ago there was question in our mind but there was enough of god's sanctioning and god ordaining and the prayer and commitment of god's people that we had to step forward in faith and that's what we will have to do when it comes to the building you know we won't always be sure about the next steps sometimes that step needs to be by faith we didn't have 3.3 million dollars when we started building this building but there was faith that god's hand was upon it there was faith in the people of god there was faith and trust among one another and when we stepped out in faith then of course and this leads me to the final point the rewards of building a building i love this picture of our building kevin grampur had his drone up there taking some some pictures and uh and now we just look around here here's here's some of the paybacks here's some of the rewards getting to worship like we do in this this building and it's the rewards it's the paybacks of all of those times of prayer and commitment and seasoning our thoughts with prayer all of that is the payoff we paid for this property we paid the loan off we paid for adjacent properties and now continuing maintenance and utilities the payback is we are blessed the same is going to be true there is going to be a payback when we invest our lives in the kingdom of god you've already received some of the salvation paybacks when you you and god build salvation in your life when somebody is saved here's part of the payback burden of sin gone whoo your guilt gone hallelujah aren't you glad you let tears flow if you did aren't you glad you got in a tank somewhere or in some water somewhere and had your sins washed away and removed it all took that step of faith and being baptized into the body and building salvation into our life and then there's peace with god you know god intends for us to have peace he does not intend for his spirit-filled people to live in misery don't be miserable and i know that's easier said than done many cases but the joy of the lord is ours there's abundant grace and abundant giving really the happiest people in the world can be and should be those who are filled with the spirit of god that doesn't mean we don't get mosquito bites and flat tires and have trouble and have financial stress that doesn't mean any of that it means that through it all we've got to pay back we're blessed to be able to enjoy what we bless the reward of salvation and now there's rewards to kingdom service i listed a couple of them here of course the greatest reward well i guess i can say that yes it is the greatest reward will be heaven first peter chapter one and four said he's begotten us or we're born anew into an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled in other words it's imperishable one translation puts it this way what god is reserved for you and i when we get to heaven is beyond the reach of being changed if you had have had investments in the market it's changed those numbers on the gas pump they have changed i heard in one place they're remaking some of the pumps to make room for four digits because it's fixing to go to ten dollars in that area i mean things in this life and in this world are going to change relationships change us people are fickle and we change but look at that the inheritance that is reserved for you keep that scripture up there that inheritance that is reserved for you is incorruptible and undefiled it is beyond the reach of change nothing can change the payback that god is giving and has re in fact that verse says it's reserved and that word literally means it's watched and guarded from lost so that nothing will happen to it if you are wondering about how good heaven is going to be god and angels are watching it and reserving it and there isn't anything that's going to touch it or change it that's the payback we're fixing to get there is a payback to building our life as the temple of the lord that's future and present rewards are this the fulfillment the personal fulfillment of knowing we're doing his will i'm going to tell you that feels good doesn't it don't raise your hand i just want to ask this question anybody ever felt conviction about something that you said or you did or you should have done or you should have said i'll lift my hand for everybody you don't have to lift yours but yeah we all have felt the conviction of the spirit and there is that conviction of i know the lord directed this way i know that my leaders spoke to me about this kind of involvement and if there was any reserve or withholding there's a little there but oh what a fulfillment to know we are doing his will and that we are all in and committed that's a present reward and then others lives being changed and fulfilled i'm going to tell you there is something special about praying with someone and praying with them and for them whether it's in the altar or in your personal prayer time and they testify to a blessing of god that they received and then helping somebody receive the baptism of the holy ghost or to repent of their sin wow what a great feeling i never will forget the first person i ever baptized brother brother black and other ministers were out of town and so i was the guy and it was just a young young teenage boy i think he was about 16 years old and i wasn't much older than that and i remember the feeling that first baptism and i believe the lord just allowed me to experience that to to point me in the right direction and i felt the power of god i felt like i was in that baptistery i'm not talking about the water wet i'm talking about the cleansing and the power and the presence of god that came down i'm going to tell you it's a blessing to see others blessed last week in children's church at least three and maybe four receive the baptism of the holy ghost and one of the little girls was from one of our newer families and when the parents went in to after the service and the kids were still praying one of the little girls that had received the baptism of the holy ghost came to hug her daddy or maybe sit on his lap and as soon as she did that now he already had the holy ghost but as soon as she did that that man started speaking in other tongues as the spirit gives the utterance and was blessed by the blessing that had been in that child's life i'm just talking about some of the rewards of paying the price paying the cost and letting the lord build the kind of house he wants every one of our ministries are a different part of the kingdom of god and we want to let him build whatever he wants to build let's stand together right now would you just would you just offer yourself right now god i want to do i want to give help us now lord i thank you i thank you that you've included us into your plan to be a part of your building and to be laborers oh god and what you do corporately with the church and then what you do in each of our individuals individual lives i pray lord that we will all find and fulfill the blueprint and the destiny that you have for every specific individual i thank you for this now in jesus name in the name of the lord amen amen
Scripture references as spoken: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 3:9-11; Jeremiah 29:11; Colossians (book-only, as spoken); 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Peter 1:4.