The Household of God

Thank you, Pastor Sam. We do appreciate Pastor Sam, don't we? Uh, doing a outstanding job. And to be truthful, he has helped us pull all of this together. Um, even pushing me along. I I'm I'm I'm I got I'm on I'm on the edge of that old school stuff, you know, and uh but um just a few moments ago, I was thinking about the household of God and the way that we are the household of God. Ephesians, Paul talks in Ephesians 2, he makes the comment in verse 20.

He says that the builders upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building, what does it say? Fitly formed together. What do they do? Grow into a holy temple. I I I wanted to start off with that because everything that we're doing here, everything that we are concentrating on and putting together and you can put my slide back up there, but all of these things are that fitly formed together. We want to grow CAC and we want to see it grow into what God wants it to be.

That's why that as pastor Sam already said, you know, we saw a direction, we go in that direction, it doesn't happen, we go a different direction. So all of this is a part of that growing. Amen. So, I I want to start off with saying I know that um that Midweek University falls under Pastor Sam and I am still uh in charge of of that, but I want to say thank you to all of our volunteers. Every volunteer that is here, I want you to stand.

If you were teaching some class, if you taught some class in in Midweek University, you helped us whether it was cooking, whatever it may have been, would you stand with me right now? Each and every one of you look at this. Look at this. And these people had their hands in it working. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we've got 2025 to do it again. But, um, I thank all of you for your for your help in Midwick University. It's been a great thing.

Um, to start off with, Pastor Sam has already talked about some of the things. We've got operations and then we also have support. That's what we're in charge of as a support team. Um we are in we are there to support everything that happens here at CAC. So looking at that, you have your your uh what we call the people's group. I have my gurus as well as Pastor Sam has his. So I have my my my people that do all of the all of the entries and I don't have to do those.

So, I just say, "Hey, Chris, can you do this for me?" So, I thank you, Chris, for stepping in. She stepped in last year, uh, starting off helping me out, getting all my stuff. And still, I'll re uh every week I receive some kind of text saying, "Hey, what are we what are you doing? What are you doing?" Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you for keeping me on track, Chris. Uh, but we do have all of this is structured because we want to be fitly formed together, right?

Amen. student ministries. We have brother George, also Sister Bethany, would you stand? Outstanding job. They're doing a great job in that and they continue to do so. Uh we just got back from uh youth uh function over in Murphy'sboro. Great. Um had had a great time. These guys did a great time a great thing pulling that together. I appreciate you for that very much. But they'll be in charge of that as well as hyphen. Um, anything going on with hyphen, they they are in charge of that.

We thank you for that. Sister Mandy, would you stand? She is in charge of our ladies. Yes. Ladies ministry. Um, so this book club or this this book that we're going to be doing and there's a lot of activities that she'll be in charge of keeping our ladies uh keeping them engaged. There's all Everybody needs to have their hands in CAC. If you're a part of CAC, you need your hands in there. So, thank you, Sister Mandy. Uh Josh is not here today, but he is in charge of our men's ministry.

He has done a great job. I'm sure he's going to look online. Thank you, brother Josh. Uh he continues to make sure that uh we do maintenance on the buildings and hallelujah in the 2025. We got a lot of stuff that needs to be done, Brother Josh. So get your work gloves on. Amen. But then we have made some changes. We have our auxiliary ministries. Everybody say auxiliary ministries. There there are there are two areas of this ministry. And uh I want to say this first of all uh where is Horton?

They stepped out. Okay. Well Horton, brother Horton uh sister Chzny had they're still plugged in. and they're doing a lot with our recovery ministries and uh they have they have done really well with that. We've seen a lot come in uh celebrate recovery. Also, we have we have jail ministries. We've got all kinds of things that goes on outside of this building. And so we want to thank them for all of the hard work, but they're they're a part of that auxiliary ministry uh and not able to really engage like they want to as far as here at CC, but outside these buildings.

We thank them for that. But we have we have asked Brother Rob and Sister Candy, would you stand? They are they are joining our team and they're going to be Yes. They're in charge of auxiliary ministries and what they will be doing in auxiliary ministry. They'll be doing all of our whether it's missions, whether it's uh it's I've got a list here. It's home Bible studies, jail ministries, it's nursing homes, uh uh just whatever that may look like. We've got a lot of things that pipe into that.

Uh brother Rob, he's got his hands full. But in saying that, we ask everybody to get their hands into CAC, right? And so that is part of those ministries. We thank you, brother. Thank you for for stepping up to the challenge. And then we still have what how many enjoyed connect this past year, man. We've had all kinds of food. We've had all kinds of fellowship. And there's been all kinds of things go on in 2024. 2025. Uh, we still have brother Vandy and sis sister Andrea.

You guys connect connect. I see that. I want them to stand. If you would stand with us. These guys have done an awesome job in connecting. Uh, and they have and we keep adding to Brother Vandy. So, Brother Vandy, we we're gonna you're gonna be all right. We believe in you. Amen. Amen. But our connect groups um again everybody's hands in CAC. If you don't have your hands in CAC, you need them there. We need to be doing something for the kingdom of God.

How many you know that there is a harvest and there is somebody to reach out there. We know that from just from last Sunday and I don't see him here today, but man walks in off of the street. I I don't know what I'm reading. I don't understand this, but I know that the Bible says that you need to be baptized in Jesus name. No clue. That's who we need to be is the hands of CNC CAC. God bless you today.

Somebody say, "Amen." Amen. Thank you to our pastoral staff. These guys do an excellent job. I applaud you gentlemen. Thank you so much. To know is anybody bored yet? To know that 60% plus of our church congregation is involved in one thing or another. Let me tell you, I've I've had a little experience. Some of y'all may have too of other churches and if they get five or 10% they were super excited. Thank you, CAC. Thank you so much. I applaud you and I thank you for that.

Your investment in the kingdom, my part. Listen carefully, please. There are several things that we have been doing. We will continue to do. Okay. Pastor socials. We're still going to do that. For anybody that's new and connecting at CAC, my wife and I want to meet them. This year, we're not inviting all the leadership. We're inviting the pastoral staff. Our room is small, so we've decided to kind of bring it down a little more so that we can engage with them.

We're doing that once a quarter. We're thankful we have an opportunity to meet our new folk coming, let them know about us, kind of get to know them a little bit, ask some questions and stuff just to kind of establish a relationship. So, that's part of what we do. Also, if you are here between the age of 10 and 20, would you raise your hand as high as you can get it? Between age 10 and 20. As high as you can get it.

Come on. Listen to me carefully. Brother Seth, put your hand. What's wrong with you? Listen to me carefully, please. This past year, I I had a group of young men that I felt a need to try to just help. And so, we met about a half a dozen times. There was three young men that I'd bring in my office before Sunday school for about 10 or 15 minutes. And I would just talk to them. We'd talk about Bible. We'd talk about games.

We'd talk about whatever. And basically, I was being nosy. So, I could No, I'm joking. But something that my wife and I feel very passionate about for this coming year, very needed now. I'm I'm now what's called old. Um, and I'm I'm waking up to that fact to understand that there's a reason that I have gray hair because the Lord has allowed me I was reminded yesterday this year this year it will be almost 50 years ago that I received the gift of the Holy.

That's just hard to say. my wife 50 years that the Lord filled us with the Holy Ghost. Some of you probably longer than that, but most of you not. I've been in ministry in in ministry, not just teaching or whatever, but ministry for over 35 years. Listen to me carefully. I don't know a lot, but I do know a few things. If you'll go and This is so cool. Well, if you'll study the priesthood in the Old Testament, you'll discover that they started their ministry at age 30, but they were finished at age 50.

You may know that by age 50, they had to transition into a teaching part where they could instruct the new ministers coming along. That was part of the priesthood. Guess what? I've passed 50. Somebody say, "Amen." My wife and I have established Young Apostolic Leadership Enhancement Course, Yale. For those of you that are between the age of 10 and 20, I invite you to join the group. Listen to me carefully. We will meet once a month on Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m.

to 10:30. That's before all church prayer. 10:00 a.m. to 10:30. We'll grab a room that's not used. My wife and I are going to sit down with you and we're going to pour ourselves into you. I do not want to stand before the Lord one day and him say, "What'd you do with what I gave you?" I will pour into you. I will commit 15 minutes of biblical sound biblical leadership principles. And my wife has committed to pour into you 15 minutes of sound application leadership principles.

She's a lot better at that than I am. I'm just simply like, "Go do it." She's the type that said, "This is how listen to me. Between the age of 10 and 20, this is not for all of you. This is not babysitting. My wife and I reserve the right to ask you to leave if you're not committed to it. We reserve that right. Parents, don't be mad at us if we come to you and say they're not ready for this."

But parents, if you want your child to be involved with it and they're below the age of 18, next week we're going to have our first meeting at 10:00 a.m. If you're below 18, bring your parent, at least one of your parents with you if you want to join. If you're above that, yon, you can come. Listen to me. The vast difference between a 10-year-old and a 20-year-old is incredible. Agreed. But the workers in the tabernacle, you'll find out, were young people that learned simply how to carry a bowl from here to there as ministry.

So, we're opening ourselves up to you. I I don't know a lot of things, but God has graced my brain with some stuff that I don't want to lose. I have seen through my life and ministry so many older folk fade away and never leave the legacy. I don't want that to be the case. 10 to 20 next Sunday, 10:00 a.m. We'll meet this front classroom, 30 minutes. We'll explain it to you. We'll give you a commitment form. You read over it.

You sign it. Your parent signs it. You give it back to me. And then the second Sunday of each month, 10:00 a.m. to 10:30, I invite you. Listen to me. Some of you young people, y'all watch this. Some of you young people are involved in other ministries and it's going to conflict with that. It is your responsibility to communicate that with those leaders. That's why we reserve the right. If you miss one or two of these sessions, you're not ready for it.

But some of you are asking some of the right questions. You need somebody to help lead and guide you. We're going to do that. Is that okay? If you're not committed, will you ask you to back away? That okay? Listen to me. Also, we are establishing a culture of giving. Has anybody here give to the kingdom of God? It's okay. Raise your hand. How many of you guys actually give in the church house? A lot of you though give online at home, don't you?

These young folks don't know that we are not teaching our children to bring an offering. We're showing them, yeah, we gave, but until they see mom and dad do it, that's a principle that's lost. We have a solution for that. We'll explain it when it comes along, but that's coming up in the next week. We're waiting on them to be be turned to us. Offering time, you can bring that object and put it in the plate to demonstrate to your children that you gave, but this is how you do it.