What Is Important

Lord you may be seated thank you brother Anthony Mannion for the confidence and invited me to share this congregation for a few minutes today I didn't come here to minister we came here to be ministered to this was a time in our lives when we felt like we needed to be minister to and preached it and we have the very first service messages seem like that there was some part of every message that really ministered to the needs and the spiritual desires of my heart sometimes you get in the middle of a battle and you lose sight of reality and that's when we become vulnerable or weak when we're not seeing things as they really are but we're seeing them either through carnal eyes or through discouraged eyes or through busy eyes or troubled eyes and at any rate we're not seeing things in reality and this conference has been very good for us I've been blessed I could go back home now and say that it was worth every effort to attend just for the things that we've received and as a bonus God has ministered so powerfully in the spirit our spirits have been refreshed and revived and well it's just been good to be here and I trust that what I would have to say today would Minister to your hearts and bless you I appreciate this church and what it has stood for through the years when sister Mangan have been a tremendous influence in my life along with some other ministers who are here today for many many years brother JT pew has really influenced my life as just a young man singled getting started in the ministry I was so blessed by his ministry and others here have blessed me through the years and I've appreciated the ministry that God has given to some of our younger men I've been blessed on both ends of the ministerial spectrum by some of the men who are my elders and I look back to those days with a great deal of fondness and Thanksgiving we have some young men who have come on the scene in the last few years that have really blessed me I appreciate their ministry and their attitude towards the work of God I appreciate brother and sister Anthony Mann and and their dedication than sister tinny have meant a lot to us in just their consistency not even talking about their powerful ministry through the years but their consistency in their walk with God real Christians brother Mike Williams and his ministry the other night really blessed we'll all of them have if I get to trying to cover all the bases I'll leave some off Shirley but thank you all for everything that you've contributed to our lives and our ministry when I get into the scripture today and move on into the thoughts that I feel so strongly on my heart I don't want to be misunderstood so just let me say at the beginning that I don't feel more spiritual than anyone and I don't feel like I know more than anyone else and I don't feel like that I have a lock on

word of the Lord or direction from the Lord that you don't have I just speak to you honestly and sincerely hoping that God would minister to our hearts today as we look to his word I feel that I have been abundantly blessed by the Lord God has been good to me if I were to start counting my blessings today I'd stay here longer than the allotted time just in counting my blessings God has been good to me I don't have any access to grind I'm not aiming any arrows at anyone in particular would you turn in your Bibles to the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew Matthew chapter 25 begins by telling the parable of 10 virgins and then he talks about a man who traveled to a far country and before he left he called his servants and delivered unto them his Goods verse 15 and unto one he gave five talents to another two and to another one to every man according to his several ability and straightway took his journey then he that it had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents and likewise he that had received two he also gained other two but he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lords money after a long time the Lord of those servants cometh and reckon it with them everybody said a long time after a long time you know minutes and hours don't test us very much in fact days really don't test us weeks bring minor testing months maybe a little more severe but it's only years that really tests only years that's why that's why science with all of its nala at knowledge and with all of its technology and even the computer-aided research today cannot quickly come to solutions to the medical needs and problems of mankind because it takes a long time to prove something you don't prove it overnight and that's why I believe that he made the statement here the Lord or the master or the good men of the house or the man was gone for a long time time proves all things anyone can shout for a day but if you're going to be shouting ten years from now it's because you have the goods anybody can get caught up in the excitement of a conference such as we are in now time proves all things we can boast and we can brag and we can go on our ego trips but let a little bit of time pass and time washes out all of the drawers time washes out the week time gets rid of the insincere and time proves what we're made of and so he had been gone a long time even though he had delayed his journey and had been gone a long time he did come back and when he came back he did not forget what he had given and he did not ignore what he expected and he called each of these men in and said I want you to give me an accounting the talents that I have given you I want you to give me an accounting and if I were to title this message and I don't often title I I'm not a sermon Iser some ways regret that I never learned that never put emphases into that I I don't really have a whole lot of strong pulpit abilities but I do like to minister to people and if I were to title this today I would just like to

ask the question what is important and I would like to make a statement I want to be a profitable servant a prophet serve would you pray with me once again father touch our hearts today I pray that you would direct us and guide us there would be an anointing in this service that you would minister to our hearts that you would direct our thoughts you would guide our minds oh God lay your hand upon us today minister to us today and we'll praise you for it in that name which is above every name hallelu in the name of Jesus oh we love you God and we bless your name Lord we bless your name glory to God hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hello Oh God praise the lord praise the lord god bless you you may be seated now if i had been you know one who was going to preach today i'd have slept an extra hour but i guess i know a little more about the preacher than you do after he had given the talents five to one he led left the talents in their hands and what they did were those talents was determined entirely by their desire or what they wanted to do you know God in his own way in his own unique way touches each of us our experiences while very similar our individual God deals with us individually God is wise beyond our understanding time also Cruzatte proves wisdom and determines wisdom a lot of things that we question today seems so undeniably clear a week or two weeks a month or a year down the road things that we don't understand when God does something we really don't always understand it and God has his own unique way of dealing with each other's in what he gives us is determined by his knowledge not only of us but his knowledge of time his knowledge of experience his knowledge of trial his knowledge of pressures his knowledge of relationships God deals with us on the base of absolute knowledge about our lives and what we're going to face and where we're going to go and who we're going to associate with God determines all of that because he knows all of that from the beginning we have a problem with that there's no problem with God because God knows where he's taking us but we have a problem with a journey it isn't the end if God would just miraculously pick us up today and transport us into the future and allow us to see eternity and what he is planned for each of us in eternity we would not fret and fast nor worry about God's design design for these times but it's because we don't understand the future and we don't see it clearly that we fuss and we fred and we worry and we question God why did you give that man five talents and you just gave me one you know our insecurities sometimes kill us destroys me gold gets on a rampage and we become concerned about our position and who we are and where we fit in the pecking order you know we we get real concerned about it and our attitude towards the work of God becomes distorted and we forget what our divine purpose is we want to make us what we want to be the image of that perfect man

or individual but let me say again I want to be a profitable servant and let me ask you the question today what is important what is important what is valuable in life what what are we really striving for what are we aiming for what are we desiring out of life what are we working for what's it all about what are the marks of success in the work of God God has established one set of values but we have established another God has said this is important and we say this is important where's brother Huntley telehandler here he mentioned something yesterday about about being raised and are not raised in a pastor's home you know I guess because I was raised in a preacher's home I really never thought a whole lot about how others might feel through the years I've heard an occasional comment about this one way or the other well the preacher sons the pastor sons have it made you know they they have a few steps ahead of the rest of us in the race for success in the ministry now I think that one of the reasons we feel that way and we think that way is because our priorities are in the wrong place in the first place we're looking for a certain realm or element of success and God's not the least bit interested in that kind of success he has something different in mind for us I might say on the other side of the coin it isn't always the easiest thing in the world to be raised in a pastor's home in fact pastors sons a lot of times have to wade through a lot of garbage even to get into the ministry you see things at times that you shouldn't see you hear things at times that you shouldn't hear and a wise parent of course guards very carefully the things that their children here and my parents were wise and I appreciate that but a lot of a lot of young men raised in pastor's homes are subjected to hurt and cruelty that you would not even understand unless you were raised there and it isn't always easy to measure up to the image of a successful father you start out with a big weight on your shoulders at times and you wonder if you could ever really if you could really really measure up to the success is that these men have enjoyed I think that what we all need to do is focus in on what the real purpose is and that's the fact that God has endowed each one of us with talents and abilities and he does not expect me to be profitable on the basis of your talent only on mine I am NOT going to give an accounting for your talents only mine I will not have to answer to God for what I did with your talents only what I did with my talents I don't have to answer for your calling I have to answer for my calling I will not have to answer to God for how much you prayed or didn't pray but I will have to answer from how many hours I spent in prayer or how many days that I wasted I'm not responsible for what you do with your talent and I'm a fool if I set and fret the years away worried because my talent does not seem to be equal to yours God has only given us one responsibility and that's the handle the talent that he has placed in our hands we have set our own values and we have made our own marks a success life that's part of it almost because in life we have placed certain values on certain

things in life in general we we have placed values on for women beauty grace on men were not careful we talk about height size with some folks the other day a man was bragging about his son and I could understand that I really could and I I don't see this in any way but honestly he's talking about his 18 year old boy wearing a size 50 cat coat or jacket a 32 inch waist and I said may God strike him with obesity the rest of his life you know we we have established certain criteria you know this this makes a person something really good and great and wonderful and so kids grow up feeling like they have to measure up to that and and when they don't measure up to it they they grow up feeling insecure and wondering what's wrong with them and they fight these battles of insecurity and it causes people to act like fools trying to prove that I'm as good as you are and that I am as strong as you are I have as many abilities as you have and and you know a lot of successes sadly to say are are motivated by ego a desire to prove the rest of the world wrong I'm going to prove you wrong in the ministry we don't have to prove anybody wrong we just have to prove him all right praise God our marks of success what does it take to be a real success in the ministry we're not careful we build models of the successful man and we get a distorted view of what a successful preacher pastor evangelist ought to be our insecurities and our weaknesses and our ego compels us to set certain criteria or marks a success and reach for those and and sometimes we will hide unlawfully we'll labor unlawfully to gain those things when they really don't mean much be a successful evangelist you know when I started preaching I I guess that I had as many marks against me as anyone when I started preaching I didn't have a lot going for me and have a lot of talents I felt and there's one thing that I had been given by my parents and my grandparents that I thank God for I in fact I don't know how to thank God enough for them but they gave me a certain sincerity towards the work of God they put in my heart the attitude the idea that the ministry is not a game you're not out there for self glory and self honor but you're there to do a work for God they they implanted that in my heart very deeply and when I started yielding to the call of God in my life I heard men like by the JTP you brother VA get rose for the CA Nelson those men just drove that fact home harder and harder every time I would hear them there was a feeling of sincerity towards the ministry that came through and spoke loud and clear and what an impression they made on my heart and I thank God for those messages I thank God for those men and I thank God for those attitudes I never had a frivolous attitude towards the ministry I may have made my share of mistakes and I have made enough to furnish me with embarrassment for a lifetime if I were to be shot for every mistake I've made there probably not enough bullets in Alexandria to shoot me enough times for all of them I've made but there's one thing that I have never had and that is an in sincerity towards the work of God the ministry has never been a mean to an end you're in it because God's called you you're in it to do a work for God and in those early days even in my early teen years when God was dealing with my heart and I would go to the church in the midnight

hour and pray to and three hours at a time I always wanted to have an all-night prayer meeting but it seemed that somewhere around 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning I always wore out I remember one night and other riot was talking about angels I don't know that I've ever seen an angel I think I married one sometimes I think she may have fallen a little bit I don't know that I've ever seen an angel but I'll never forget the night when I was 13 years old and four or five of us had gathered in the church to pray we had prayed until the glory of God was coming down so strong and that that little wooden church that I felt something that I have never felt in my life I didn't know what it was at the time it's only later that I probably was able to decipher that it was angels but I was afraid to open my eyes afraid that I would see a heavenly beam and I didn't feel worthy other time I prayed until the glory of God came down that night and I have never been in the presence of God stronger and all of my life older more mature wiser in some ways but I've never been in the presence of God and he's stronger than it was that night when I was 13 years old God's real his work is real and when I started preaching I thought well I get several meetings lined up and I have an automobile I've got enough clothes to last me I'll start preaching God dealt with my heart I was not able to fulfill that goal in my life I started preaching without an automobile one suit one sport coat one pair of pants two or three shirts I hitched rides I didn't have a whole lot going for me in those days there wasn't a lot to boast or brag about but I was sincere I wanted to do something for God I prayed and I remember the first meeting that I reached God ministered there was a miracle a woman was healed the second meeting I preached there's another miracle a woman was healed skin cancer I saw the move of God and the Minister of God's Spirit few folks filled with the Holy Ghost and I was so grateful wasn't long after that till young man started traveling with me and we had a revival in Texas little country town and God moved in that place and folks began to come from all over the countryside and I'd begin to pour out his spirit there was a Holy Ghost outpouring in that place that that I'd never felt worthy of I didn't feel like I deserve that kind of results but but God ministered and that there was such a mighty anointing there such a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit and I felt so good in that in the presence of God in the Ministry of God's Spirit ministering to my heart and ministering to others and how good it felt to be in his presence to feel the touch of his spirit and to have the anointing of God upon me but somewhere along the line I began to look at others who were in the work of God and I got my eyes off of what the real success and the ministry was and I began to look at material things and see that a successful evangelist was able to drive a nice automobile successful evangelist even had travel trailers and they could Drive Cadillacs or Lincoln's and successful evangelist stayed in nice motels and hotels at general conferences and and then you look at the successful pastors and the kind of cars they drive in the kind of homes they live in I began to get my eyes on those things and I looked at myself and said surely I'm not successful even though God had graced my ministry beyond my expectations and had given me Souls and I was thrilled at that but I got my eyes on the wrong thing and I said this must be the mark of success and I begin to look at those things and I got my eyes off of the things that really makes a man a success in the ministry this success really a new Cadillac a Lincoln or a custom thing it success really a nice Motorhome for a new travel trailer it success really being a full-time evangelist or pastor that full-time must

make God sick we have gotten our eyes on the wrong thing it isn't whether I'm full-time or not it's whether I'm ministering to someone or not it is the matter of being able to be to sit back and say I derive my livelihood from the ministry I don't have to work with my hands some of us would have a hard time relating with the Apostle Paul and some parts of his ministry full-time full-time are you full-time yet we put pressure on our home missions pastors pressure that's that's not always seen but it's there nonetheless are you full-time yet has your church grown enough that you can be full-time yet what does full-time mean how important this full-time I'll tell you what is important the importance is that you're making inroads into that city and you're touching souls with the power of the gospel praise God I'd like to throw some spiritual throw stones through some of our man-made idols today and help us understand that the ministry is more than some of the the criteria that we have set for it a successful man in our eyes is not always successful in the eyes of God because we're human and we have human weaknesses and we give in to those human weaknesses some men I've heard men preach and I'm not saying this to be critical today if you take it that way then you just have to judge me as you want to but there are some men that have learned to play on our prejudices human nature responds quicker to its prejudices than it does to truth if you want to get a response from an audience and I fear sometimes that we have been more concerned with a response from the audience in the congregation than we have been in changing lives and changing the direction in which men will walk more interested in raising folks off their pew than we are changing their carnal direction through a spiritual direction and time and experience has proven to us if we will play to an audience's prejudices we can get a greater response from them than we can when we simply preach truth I have never forgotten I have never forgotten the conference in Fort Worth 13 years ago are there about brother Mangan preached I said in that conference listening to him preach God's smiting my heart because he was telling us that if we want revival we have to quit playing games that there's a revival for everyone who's willing to pray because God is no respecter of persons we may not all be equal in the talent business but every one of us are equal when we go to our knees God doesn't look at Talent when a man goes to his knees and begins to seek him that's it there that night brother Mangan was preaching in my heart was touched I went I said old cup I will to build a church for your name a church that would glorify and magnify your name and I looked at an audience of people getting up and walking out brother Mannion that had nothing to do with your message it had something to do with our hearts I'm going to tell you something we we better be careful about the things that thriller since Paris every one of us know that homosexuality is wrong it's been preached against in this conference we all know that the scriptures are strongly against it we have hor the evil of it the Bible is against it we know that it cannot be rectified in the mind of God we know that it's wrong I can preach against it from the first chapter of the book of Romans I can preach it strong but if I really want to get a response from the audience

I don't appeal to their sense of fairness in scripture I appeal to their prejudice against the homosexual we're not going to get many of them saved that way you said there's no hope for them how beg to differ with you the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians such were some of you but you've been washed you've been cleaned you've been justified in the blood in the name of hallelujah I live in an area where that spirit is rampant I see the ridiculous side of it I pray often God build a wall about the city of San Francisco don't let them export their perversion even though they're wanting to protect our communities give a spiritual renewal and revival and protect us from those perversions but you know in a general audience if I want to get a real response when I preach against homosexuality I need to drop my wrist and trip across the stage and get a laugh from the audience in a response I have not appealed to your sense of righteousness nor godliness I have appeal to your prejudice and if we're not careful we respond quicker and stronger to our prejudices than we do anything else a man can learn to appeal to the prejudices of his audience and when the service is over and we have all walked out and we go to the restaurants we can sit there and criticize just as much as we did before it's because we have not heard enough preaching that reaches the heart that allowed some of our young preachers to become so carnal that while one of their peers would be in the pulpit preaching they could sit in the audience and clandestine ly flip one another off trying to get them broken up so that they would laugh well Garrity in the house of God because they had no respect for God you say what's wrong I'm going to tell you what's wrong we have developed a wrong sense of values we have developed a wrong criteria for judging a man's success that's a shock to some of you then we need to understand that we developed a generation of young preachers not all of them thank God I wouldn't even know what percentage to say except to say there are too many of them that feel like the evangelistic work is a good way to make a living while they play games it's a good way to support their golfing in their racquetball in their basketball tell brother ride he can rest easy now I've taken first place nothing wrong with golf in my estimation nothing wrong with basketball I probably ought to play more of it nothing wrong with racquetball but there's a whole lot wrong when it becomes God of our lives when we're more interested in the racquet ball scoring game than we are how many souls are finding God by our marks of success he's highly successful because he drives a beautiful luxury automobile and he can pull out his book and you can see where he has booked a year in advance two years in advance everybody know I wants him because he knows how to turn on an audience you've got some evangelist among us that are praying for revivals don't even know where to get their next one I'm not saying this out of any sense of frustration those days are past I've taught my battles I had my problems I fought with a lot of feelings of

insecurity I remember going to a fellowship meeting one night not too far from here and there was an evangelist there well-known and they just poured on the praise and the accolades I watched him afterwards when the preachers gathered around him and everybody wanted him for a meeting maybe I was fighting a little bit of jealousy I you know I'll be honest enough to say that maybe there was a little jealousy there I don't know but I know I was just struggling to survive afterwards I went to the pastor it just built a new building and I've been all I've always been independent I've never asked a man to preach a revival for him I just always felt that if I had a ministry that God would make room for it that maybe I hadn't prayed quite enough yet and I just simply paid the man a compliment I said this is a beautiful building I admired and respected the man he had he had blessed me from a distance and he looked at me and he said what did you say your name was and I told him he said well maybe someday we can have you for a viable he never knew how that kept me I didn't say that because I wanted to revival in his church in fact I didn't even really feel like I was worthy to preach in his pulpit I went away from there that night the devil telling me you don't have anything you don't have it you'll never make it but I'm gonna tell you what it did for me it put me on my knees I said God if you've called me to preach you're gonna have to open the doors you're going to have to make away a man did invite me to preach for him a praying man every day would grab some old blanket sir old rugs and throw them in the trunk of the car and drive out in the country and walk out across an old barbed-wire fence out into the woods throw those on the ground and kneel and pray nobody kept score we prayed until we were through and God broke through in that revival and souls began to pray through hallelujah that's been over 30 years ago I still meet some of those people they said whether she made do you remember me I receive the Holy Ghost in a certain revival what is success what is it says but what really matters what is important what counts to be full-time to have a beautiful home to drive a new luxury automobile to build a new church to attend all the major conferences and to stay at the best hotels and eat steaks material blessings are not always a sign of spiritual success in fact I'm convinced that when we stand before him some day that some of the men that have never graced the platform's of our conferences that have never stood behind the pulpits but our great meetings are going to step ahead of us when God begins to pass out the reward because God doesn't look at things the way we look at him I've been to foreign fields have looked at national ministers and I prayed Oh God in the day of judgment don't let me stand beside them they'll never drive a car in all of their lifetime they'll never sit behind the wheel of an automobile they'll never live in a house with electricity are running water that they've learned how to touch God they've learn how to pray until the glory of God is ministering in their midst men whose names you'll never hear have prayed and the dead have been raised to life again men whose names you'll never hear and faces you'll never see this side of eternity can walk through crowds of people that speak languages foreign to us and lay hands on them in cancers drop-off and withered hands a restored whole again and the crippled walk I'm gonna tell you folks there are some men in this world that know what it is to touch God and they have learned some spiritual values and I don't preach this

today because I feel a sense of frustration or because there are a lot of sour grapes in my heart and mind I preach it sincerely today because I love the work of God and I want us to do something for God I want us to understand what God has called us to do and we started in the ministry didn't have a lot going for us we had to seek God we had to ask God to pray but somewhere along the line forget what God's called you to do he reached that realm of success and you say I've got it made doesn't matter how many times you pat me on the back unless God has touched my heart and my ministry I don't have it made the Apostle Paul asked the question one time he said you did run where what did he hinder you you did run well that same apostle writing in the book of Romans in the latter part of the eighth chapter said that none of these things are going to separate us from God in other words he said nothing can come between you and God and yet in the book of Galatians he said something did he said what did hinder you that you should run well he was not speaking of sins here he was speaking our spiritual mists direction spiritual mists direction where sin didn't get in your way you didn't have a problem with alcoholism you never fell to fornication or adultery you were able to withstand the pressures and the trials of the time but spiritual misdirection got in your way and caused you to fall or to fail I heard a pond one time and I've never forgotten the latter part of it it's said of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these what might have been what might have been what might have been what might have been I've had a lot of fears in my lifetime but in the midnight hours when everything's quiet and my frustrations begin to rise in my worries begin to come alive the one thing that worries me and frustrates me more than anything else and that is the fact that I might not have been all that I could have been that I might not have done all that I could have done that I might have stopped short of what God wanted me to do what right do we have to confuse our priorities and allow a world to go to hell we need to repent and beg forgiveness from a hurting confused and frustrated world while they are still bound by sin we are too busy making payments on our success to set them free Matthew 25 is not her reading of the minutes of the last General Conference of the United Pentecostal church neither is at the front page of USA Today it's not some sensational lie from the pages of National Inquirer we have been projected into eternity and we are reading an account from the recorder of the court of eternal judgment and when we stand before him he will not be looking at the labels in our suits or our dresses or the brand of our shoes or 4cm on our ties he is not interested in the kind of automobiles that we drove he's not going to be adding at the square footage of our homes for our churches he doesn't care whether we bump our furniture at drexel heritage or at some news furniture place he's not going to be looking at those things in fact he might not even be asking for a list of conferences or camp meetings that we have preached or how many months or years of revival we booked in advance but he will ask for an accounting of our talents he will say what did you do with what I gave you he will ask us to tell him what we did with a talent that he placed in our hands he's going to want to know if we fed the hungry if we had given drink to the thirsty if we've clothed the naked and if we have visited those who are sick and in prison lieutenant he's going to want to know that he's going to want to know we waste

we waste we and I said we because I preached himself in fact maybe I am the greatest recipient of this message today but we waste enough money in our ranks to support our mission is both home and horrid without pressing anyone if ever one of us would be willing to drive Chevrolet's instead of Cadillacs or Lincoln's our missionaries wouldn't have to travel from a year to two years just to raise enough funds to support them for three to four years on the mission field i sat down one day and I tried to figure out the cost of our general conferences while we go and eat steaks we go by our fine clothes now new automobiles on missions day home and foreign we make beggars of our leaders or we're sitting there burping over the latest steak dinner that filled us more than we need anyway and remember I said we I said we and we think that we're going to stand before God and bring all of our accomplishments and impress God when God isn't looking for cars or clothes or steaks he's looking for sheaves I said he's looking for sheaves and I hope I hope I can bring him Sam