In Jesus Name

Praise God. Can we just give God praise right now? Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

What a privilege. What a privilege to stand in front of all of you. I've often said it's a privilege and a pressure, but it is — it is a great, great privilege. And Sister Mangun, I think now would be a good time, now that the singing is over, for us to let her know how we appreciated that word that we just received from her. Thank you for that word. Thank you for that word — and the word, and the word last night. I think we need to give God praise for that word last night. Amen. Amen.

Let's turn to Colossians, the third chapter and the seventeenth verse. I give honor to all of you people. I give honor especially to Pastor Mangun. Love him very much. We have been connected for many years. And Mike has been my — it's been my privilege to be connected all up in this Because of the Times team. Something else. Honor to my family, and the great people of POA that put this conference on.

Colossians, the third chapter and the seventeenth verse: "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." I want to preach today on In Jesus' Name. In Jesus' Name. Whatever we do in word or deed, it should all be done in the name of Jesus.

Can we lift our hands right now and ask God to speak to us individually? Hallelujah. Jesus, we need You. We need You, Jesus. We need You, Jesus. Give us the revelation that we need. Speak to our hearts and our minds. Change us. Change us. In Jesus' name. God bless you. You can be seated.

In Jesus' name: doing life in the name of Jesus. Whatever we do in word or deed — our words and actions literally cover our lives. Doing life in the name of Jesus means doing life in a Christ-honoring manner, a manner in which His name is brought to the reputation that He desires. Right now, in this crazy, messed-up world that we live in — whatever we do in word or deed, word or action, do all in the name of Jesus. And the mandate is to do life in a manner in which it's obvious to everybody that His name is more important than our name, and that His name is more important than our church's name. In Jesus' name.

I was in the eleventh grade. I was a North Side Grizzly in Fort Smith, Arkansas. And in the eleventh grade, Brother Lumpkin and my father and Brother Patrick and some of the men in the church started Northside Christian Academy. And so I went from being a Grizzly to a Saint. I went from being a North Side Grizzly individual — that's the school Mickey graduated from — to being a Northside Saint. And so that first day in that ACE school, they set me down in eleventh grade, and they gave me what they called a diagnostic test. How many of you have ever attended an ACE school, know anything about it? Right. Great. So they set me down, they gave me this test, and I opened the test up, and it said — it was a math test, and the English test. And I opened the math test up: it said, "Count to ten." I thought something's wrong here. And so I opened the English one up: it said, "Write your ABCs." So I raised my hand, because I thought I had the wrong test — I'm in the eleventh grade. And so they walk over, and I said, "I got the wrong test." And they said, "No, you don't have the wrong test, because what this test is, is it goes from your most basic knowledge to the most advanced. And when you get through with this test, we're going to know if you know the basics. We're going to know where your gaps are. We're going to know what level you're on. It doesn't matter that you're supposed to be in the eleventh grade. You may have an eighth-grade gap. We've got to know what your basics are."

And so the basics are very foundational. And when you consider this basic of this one-foot ruler that I hold up — and I realized that we got missionaries here, and we know that God is not American, but I have to use the American standard of measurement today, because I don't know all of the others. But when you look at this and you realize that what makes up an inch — it's, you know, a sixteenth, an eighth, a fourth, three-eighths, a half, five-eighths, three-fourths, seven-eighths, an inch. However, there's other ways to go about it. But what we know is: twelve inches equals a foot. That's what we know. And we also know that construction would be a disaster without a consistent standard of measurement. If you had a couple of builders and they would show up, and one of them said, "Well, you know, I go off of a nine-inch foot." "Well, I go off of a five-inch foot." "Well, I go off of a twelve-inch foot." And you say, "Well, have a good time, guys." And that would not be a house that you would want to live in at all, because the consistent standard of measurement is very important. Builders know that you can't start wrong and finish right. They also know that you never build from the top down. They know that successful construction begins with a foundation. It takes a consistent standard of measurement and a foundation-first, ground-up plan. That's what it takes.

First Corinthians 3:11 says, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." I'm preaching today: In Jesus' Name. Ephesians 2:20-22 says: "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." I'm preaching today: In Jesus' Name.

We best make sure that Jesus is still our basic standard of measurement. We better make sure that the goal is still Jesus, and that a Jesus life is still the most important thing. Because we need to understand that we cannot aim at the wrong target and hit the right one. We can't travel the wrong road and end up at the right destination. Wrong pursuits never deliver right placement. And so the goal is a Jesus life. It is a life of oneness with Him. It is a life growing in His fullness.

As we understand this, we understand why God-reduction in our lives is the focus of the enemy. Satan has always sought to reduce God in the lives of man. Man is God's crowning creation; therefore the enemy wants to reduce God in our lives. We see it in the garden: the enemy makes a small change for a big impact. And we see it in Genesis 3:1: "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said—" He just added one small word. "Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden." It was a small word. It was a very subtle change, but a big impact. Because God-reduction in the eyes of man happens by enticing man beyond his intended position in divine authority. And so what happens is, the enemy comes in by pride, to elevate man in man's eyes. And by so doing, the elevation of man causes the decreasing of God. And so the enemy comes through the pride of man to elevate: "You do this — you can be like God." And it's really not about man altogether at all. It's the elevation of man that will reduce God. And because the enemy is about God-reduction in our lives — so, Colossians 3:17 again: "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." I'm preaching: In—

—Jesus' name. Whatever we do in word or deed — that sums up most of our lives. It's: do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. This Scripture is a great baptism Scripture, but it's much more than that. It's a life Scripture. Colossians 3 delivers a load of spiritual instruction. It advises regarding our words and our deeds and our actions, and it speaks of our lives being under the lordship of Jesus Christ. It speaks of how our focus must be doing life in the name of Jesus. It tells us that we must begin focused on Jesus Christ. We must continue focused on Jesus Christ. And we must end focused on Jesus Christ.

When we consider even the first and last chapters of the book of Revelation, they literally include the very same message. In Revelation 1:10 and 11: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." And then in Revelation 22:13: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." It's all to be about Jesus. It's in Jesus' name. It's our word in Jesus' name. It's our deed in Jesus' name. It's doing life in the name of Jesus. It's talking in a way that brings His reputation to this world. It is acting in a way that is God-honoring. It's, whatever we do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus. It's saying: do life. Do life in Jesus' name.

You go back to Colossians 1:18: "And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." That in all things He might be first. That in all things He would hold first place. You move on to Colossians 2:9-10: "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." And so, if the Bible makes it very clear that He completes us, then why would we think that anyone or anything else could complete us? If the Bible truly tells us that ye are complete in Him, then why would we think that anybody else could complete us? Then why would we even put that pressure on anybody else? Then why would we even be confused in our mind to think that completeness could come through somebody or something? Money won't satisfy us. The new-car smell fades. The new home becomes the older home. Friendships have ups and downs. Parents can only do so much. And spouses, at best, can only do so much. And prestige doesn't complete us. And positions won't complete us. It doesn't matter if it's Sunday school teacher, or youth leader, student pastor, minister of music, creative arts director, assistant pastor, associate pastor, senior pastor, lead pastor, president or district superintendent, bishop. It really doesn't matter what it is, because the inability to complete is the common denominator of every position. Of every position. It won't complete.

"Well, if I could just get that. If I could just do this. Well, if I could just get that. Well, if I could just get elected to that." There are people that have gotten bitter and left God because they didn't get elected to something. It's like: when in the world and how in the world are we going to mature to a place to where we realize there is completion in one place? One place. One person brings completion. And it's not a connection with anybody else. It's not in connection with people. It's not in connection with a certain church, a certain organization. We've got to understand that whatever we do in word or deed must be done in the name of Jesus. He is the beginning. He is the Alpha. He is the Omega. He is everything in the middle. And we are complete only, only, only in Him.

Therefore, WWJD is old. It is outdated. "What would Jesus do?" But it's still a very good thing. It's still a good thing to say, "I don't do that because Jesus wouldn't." It's still okay to say, "I do that because Jesus did." And if we could ever mature to the point to where it wasn't, "Well, I can't do that because my organization doesn't let me. I can't do that because my pastor says I can't. I can't do that because the authority in my life will not give me liberty." If we could ever get to the point where we said, "I do this because Jesus would do this, and I don't do that because Jesus wouldn't do it" — that's the elevation. That's the level. That's where we've got to pursue, and that's where we've got to live. It's the right answer for now, and you can believe it'll be the right answer for eternity.

The goal is Jesus. The goal is to think like Jesus. The goal is to talk like Jesus. The goal is to act like Jesus. The goal is to become one with Jesus. The goal is to live a Jesus life, where He is obviously loved and adored and pursued and obeyed. And when we love Him, and when we adore Him, and when we pursue Him, and when we obey Him, and when we do this in a level that it's obvious to everybody — then this is the road to oneness and fullness and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. This is called growing up in Christ.

So the goal is intimacy with Jesus. It's close enough to hear, even committed enough to do what He says. Because intimacy speaks of having mutual intents and affections. It's being marked by close acquaintance. It's thoroughly acquainted through study or experience. It's sharing private matters. That's intimacy. And Saul the terrorist, who became Paul the apostle, achieved such intimacy. And the Holy Ghost used him to write powerfully after he had obtained that with Jesus Christ. In First Corinthians 2:2 he spells out how he grew to feel: "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." He got to the point — he was Christ-convinced. And he just got to the point where, "I tell you what I want to know: I want to know about Jesus Christ, and I want to know about him crucified. That's the pursuit of my life. I want to know about Jesus. I want to know about him crucified. I want to understand about his approach to the crucifixion. I want to understand his crucifixion. I want to understand his life past the crucifixion. I want to know Jesus and him crucified." And he truly did life in Jesus' name.

And this is where life change happens. It's not enough to be around Christ. We've got to be in Christ. You're not a new creature if you are around Christ. I know that, because there are people that have come to churches — our churches — for decades, and they're not new. It's because they're around Christ, but they're not in Christ. There is a major difference. This is where we totally believe that He is the way, and that He is the truth, and that He is the life. And if we go His way, if we understand His truth, then we will have His life. We can never have the life that He intends us to have apart from doing life His way, by His truth. So we've got to actually live in a manner that proves that it's not about us, that it's about Him.

It's Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. The author knows how to run the book. The author knows how to get all the characters where he needs to have them by the end of the book. The author knows where the book starts, and where the book is going to end. And that is what we've got to do: understand that Jesus is the author, He is the finisher, and He is able to get us where He wants us, how He wants us, and do in our lives what He intends to do in our lives. We seek to be intimate with Him in order to achieve His mind. It's the mind of the author. It's spelled out in Philippians 2:5-8.

"Let this mind" — or allow this mind — which also says that we can block it. So: allow this mind to be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

It takes the mind of Christ to create a culture of Christ. We must understand that Christianity is to supersede culture. And therefore we must understand that it is to be Jesus Christ over position. It's to be Jesus Christ over preference. Jesus Christ is to be the filter by which our decisions are made. Whatever we do in word or deed must be done in the name of Jesus. It's not what I think; it's what Jesus thinks. It's about Him. It's about His thoughts. It's about Him. It's about His thoughts, no matter what it calls for. So it's one thing for us to say that it's Jesus Christ over position. It's another thing for us to say it's Jesus Christ over preference. But now here's the big one: it's Jesus Christ over life. It's Jesus Christ over life. It's Jesus Christ over our life. This is easier said than done. But we better start waking up and allowing our minds to go where we don't want our minds to go.

Our missionaries are having to live with this mindset. But it's been open season on Christians many times in history, and now it seems that history is starting to repeat itself. And so Christians are now being hunted and persecuted and slaughtered across the world. That's a part of the book of Acts that none of us want to think about. What we want to think about is Acts 2 power, Acts 4 power. We want to think about — that's kind of like Ecclesiastes, you know, Ecclesiastes 3. I like part of that. I like fifty percent of it. There's a time to be born, but there's a time to, you know, plant. And so we apostolics, we get into the book of Acts and we go to Piccadilly Cafeteria, because there's part of it that we like and part of it that we don't like.

But the truth of the matter is: last night's opener — last night's great opener, all those shootings and everything that it was reminding us of — my mind went to the Oregon shooting. That stood out to me because of how Christian students were targeted. The killer ordered the students to stand up, and he knew if they were a Christian or not. And then he would ask them, "Are you a Christian?" And if they replied yes, he would say, "Good, because you're going to see God in about one minute," and he killed them. That's kind of the world and the spirit that we're now a part of. We are dealing with the spirit of antichrist that does not want us to do everything that we do in word or deed in the name of Jesus. That is the spirit. It seeks to stop us from doing life in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

It's like a system. Can you hand me that sawhorse? It's like — it's kind of like a system. Let's use this as our antichrist system. A system — something that — there it is. First John 4:3 says: "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." This is not a new thing. The spirit of antichrist is not a new thing. It is a spirit that is gaining power, obviously, but it's not a new thing.

Ephesians 2:1-2: "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air" — we deal with that — "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." This is the world that we're a part of. And if we're not very careful — if we don't put our affections on things above — this system will do to us what it is out to do, and that is slowly diminish Christ in us until Christ is out of us. It's a real system. It's a real system. It is that system. It's that antichrist system.

And then we add to that antichrist system our entangled thinking. Our entangled thinking — our thinking can be a mess. Has anybody — is there anybody that will admit that? And so we get into this system, this antichrist system, and then to that we bring our entangled thinking. We must never forget that the battle is for the mind. It started in the garden, and Satan's scheme was to trick man into stepping out of divine order, into the "God zone." And this basic approach hasn't changed since the garden. Because today in ministry, many have developed a messiah mindset and a messiah complex. And so, in our messiah complex, we attempt to accomplish by our own power what is impossible to do by our own power. And we take ownership of building the church that He said He would build. And so we attempt to do what He never intended us to do. And so then we try to live up to some undefined role that is dictated by the demands of immature Christians in our church. And so then what happens is, we now have the tail wagging the dog. Because it's undefined, we're entangled in our thinking. And if undefined stays that way long enough, then it moves into unrealistic. And then, when we live our lives so long unrealistic, then it moves right on into frazzled. Sounds like this is what happened to Moses: he became a frazzled leader.

I know I've mentioned the Jethro principle before at Because of the Times, but I am admittedly a fan of repetition. I am unashamedly repetitive, because the more somebody can hear something, the better chance there is for it to actually stick. Jethro comes and tells this mighty man of God, this supernaturally gifted leader who was frazzled — who had gotten to a— Was he still being mightily used by God? Yes. Supernatural power? Absolutely. But he was losing his mind. And so God uses Jethro to come and say, "Here's what you need to do: you're going to have to break these people up. You're going to have to put captains over thousands, and hundreds, fifties, and tens. And then here's what you're going to have to do: you're going to have to let the smaller issues go to somebody else, bring the big issues to you." And so what really had to happen, and what Moses had to do, was Moses had to choose leaders based on Exodus 18. Not just somebody because they give a lot of money, or somebody pressures somebody to use somebody, or all that. But Exodus 18 — Acts 6 also has some great guidelines for that — but when you're talking about what he was told to do: "Moses, choose leaders. Define and communicate big and small. And stay close to Me, where you can hear Me." That's what he was told to do. And then Exodus 18:23 ends with: "If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace." In other words, he was saying: if you'll break this thing up, then you will endure, and the people will be in peace. So what's the flip side of that coin? If you don't break this up, you're not going to endure, the people are not going to be at peace. And so Moses was frazzled. That means he was exhausted and weary and drained and fatigued. And he had to make a change in his thinking. You see, it's the entangled thinking that is so detrimental in our lives today, because entangled thinking—

—will not allow us to rest, because we think that because rest is a four-letter word, then it needs to be put with all the other four-letter words. We get to where we think that only wimps need rest. We forget that the Bible says a lot about the Sabbath. And what does the Bible know about us anyway? It wasn't written in 2016, so what does it know? And we can't pull back and connect with God and renew one day a week. No, we can't do that, because we're too important to the kingdom of God. And I'm speaking to myself also: because if we take ourselves out of the flow, everything will fall apart. And so our entangled thinking has us convinced that we're actually that important.

And there are many people that wouldn't dream of telling people that "I'm taking a day off. That's what I'm doing. I'm taking a day off to renew. I'm frazzled. I'm fatigued. I'm not thinking right anymore. I'm worn out." Now, I'm not talking about if there's anybody here — that you're golfing two days a week, or hunting two or three days a way— Now, if you're on vacation, a special trip, fine. But you people that spend so much time in all this, or laid up watching movies or whatever, whatever all that business is — you know, I'm not talking to you. Good luck at judgment is all I have to say to people who are doing that kind of thing. Just good luck. Have a good day.

And then you've got the people — oh man: "We've been ministered, we've been ministered, we just got to get back and get carnal for a while." You're crazy. You're out of your mind. There are actually people that think that they can go on a seven-day media fast, and then God owes them a supernatural ministry. You've got to be kidding me. That is absolutely absurd. It's like, "God, I'm going to give up sin for seven days — now You owe me a ministry like Paul." Ridiculous. It's ridiculous, is what it is. It's ridiculous. Go ahead. Go ahead and keep making seasonal what God intends to be continual. Go ahead. Good luck with that kind of living and walking into a Spirit-filled church behind a pulpit. Good luck. Because there's going to be a day that that charade is going to come down. I promise you, it will come down.

And so many wouldn't dream of taking a day off to renew. I think some of you ought to have the guts to get up to your church and say, "Look, Thursday — this is what I'm going to do Thursday. Don't call me. If somebody's dying, call somebody else. Now, if they're dead, call me [laughs]. If they're dying, don't call me. Because what I'm going to do is, I'm going to take a day, and I may stay in bed half of the day. That's what I might do. I'm going to sleep. That's what I'm going to do, church. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to rest, because I'm getting so frazzled now that I'm wanting to look at half of you and tell you to go to the wrong side of eternity. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to sleep. I'm going to rest."

Jesus withdrew to renew, but we don't need to. We are so entangled in our thinking. If an emergency happens and somebody calls us at three in the morning, we answer the phone and act like we were awake praying. Is that persona? It's hard for us to really come to grips with the fact that Jesus was asleep in a storm.

So our entangled thinking has us trying to do His work under our own power. And we fail to remember that Ephesians 4:11 and 12 — Pastor mentioned that last night — "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints" — which means the maturing of the saints, not the babysitting of the saints — "for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." I have a question: aren't we supposed to be equipping people for ministry? Isn't that supposed to be the role of the leaders of the church — to equip people for ministry? People will enjoy their life better if they mature. And then that will move us away from the ministry of trying to put Scooby-Doo Band-Aids on cancer, because it does not work. People have to be equipped.

Brian Kinsey taught a session here yesterday. He's written a book, Made for More. Buy the book. Get Brian Kinsey's book, and start putting it into practice. Get it to some people in your church, and see them start to grow.

It's our entangled thinking that has us doing much of what He has not called us to do, trying to keep people happy. We can't keep people happy. Now, I'm not saying tick everybody off and tell everybody — I know. But you just can't keep— Listen, it's not about being happy. You say, "Well, but in the Bible it says I think myself happy." I got that. I'm not saying we have to be sad all the time, but it goes a lot deeper than that. And the result of our entangled thinking is church becoming a spectator sport, and people in the seats are watching a core of people wearing themselves out. Most of the time it's with the pastors and spouses leading the worn-out pack. It's taking a major toll.

Entangled thinking relegates the church to a performance sport, because even preaching and prayer become performances, like the Olympics, graded by scorecards of people, and it's like the higher the emotion, the higher the score. And I'm not against emotion. I'm very much for emotion. But it's our entangled thinking that is relegating the church to nothing more than a sport. It's entangled thinking that gets out of control. And when it gets out of control, then here's what starts happening to us: then it's never enough. It's never right enough. And then we start comparing, which the Bible is very, very clear — and it's rampant in the church today, but it's very clear that this is not wise. It's: "How many do you run? Where are you preaching? Are you preaching to any influential people in your community? Have you had any Bible studies with any doctors? Have you had any Bible studies with any lawyers? Have you had any Bible studies with any paralegals? Have you had anybody—" It's the kind of comparison thing that will just absolutely drive ministry people crazy.

I've got a great friend. I had lunch with a few weeks ago. I won't call his name, won't single him out, but he said something that just inspired me. He looked at me a few weeks ago, and he said, "I'm done with the comparison-competitive business in church." I said, "You are?" I got interested in that. I like that. He said, "Yes." He said, "I'm not talking about the size of my church anymore. I'm not talking about where I'm preaching, what I'm preaching, what programming — I'm cutting back on programming." He said, "We're going to win people. We're going to disciple people. And we're going to have good church. We're going to win people. We're going to disciple people. And we're going to have good church where the Spirit of God moves." I'm urging him on. I'm saying, "Go for it, man. Don't back up. Don't back up." Because I'm telling you: winning people is one thing; discipling them is a whole another world. And then having good church — if you can do that, you're doing a lot.

It's entangled thinking that turns us into people we never intended to be. I'm very connected to many ministry couples that span many ages and positions, and I'm gravely concerned. And this has been on my mind now for months. And I finally realized about a week ago the reason why it's been on my mind so long is for this meeting. Galatians 5:22 and 23 concerns me: "But the fruit of the Spirit" — or the proof of the Spirit — "is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Now, in 1984, Wendy's launched their big campaign, "Where's the beef?" And what—

—they were doing is they were looking at the other hamburger places, saying, "Hey, you know, we're calling you out on the quantity. We're giving more quantity." I look around at the ministry today, and myself included, I have a question: Where's the fruit? Where is the fruit? Because entangled thinking rots fruit. That's exactly what it does.

And so as we get practical, let's just ask a question as I hurry: What is successful ministry, anyway? What is a successful minister? Would we even know it if we were pleasing God? I was talking to Andrew Cox, our student pastor. I was having a meeting with him a few months ago, and he was asking about this, asking about that, and so — and he tells me, "So, I'm frustrated." He said, "It's just, you know, it's not moving. I'm just not getting enough done." I was looking at him, and I was thinking, okay. So I started asking the questions: "Andrew, are you praying?" "Yes." "Well, when are you praying? Where are you praying?" Because if you can't say when you're praying or where you're praying, you're not. And so I started right there, where it is, and so, you know, yes — and so he told me when he was praying, told me. Told me. I asked all these major, major questions. And then the light came on me. I said, "Andrew, you're all right." I said, "It's a trick of the enemy to have you driving up to this church every day — the way you're giving yourself in prayer, the way you're giving yourself to these young people, the way you're giving yourself in ministry — I said, for the enemy to be inside your head convincing you — and then you're leaving, and you're going home, you can't enjoy your wife, you can't enjoy your child, because you're thinking that you were a failure. You are not a failure."

Do we as parents want our children to consistently feel, in our presence, that they're failures? There's times there has to be adjustment. But if my kids — every time my kids came around me, all they were thinking was, "Oh, I failed again. I never measured up. He's not going to like this. He's never pleased with me." And so somehow, with our thinking, that's the way — you're giving your entire life to God. We've got missionaries here: you've left everything, you've gone to another country. We've got people here that's been ministering for decades. You've taught hundreds of Bible studies, and you're still — and you're feeling like you've done nothing. Again, I'm not talking to anybody that can be fooling around, but I'm talking to the majority, and I'm saying: God loves us, and God's happy with us, and our Dad likes what we're doing. He likes what we're doing. Can we do more? Well, yes. Can we do it better? Of course. But it's that million-dollar question: would we even know if we were being a success? And then the billion-dollar question is: what is a successful minister's wife? Yeah. Now I went off the high dive, didn't I? That's the doozy. Because you want to talk about undefined and unrealistic and frazzled — well, there it is: it's the minister's wife. And unfortunately, you can't go somewhere in the Bible and open it up and say, "If you are an apostolic minister's wife, then you need to: one, two, three, four, five." So why don't you at least start with Titus 2 to get a basic biblical view, and start letting God grow you from there?

To all of us: could success include operating in our own God-given wiring and ability? Could success be us actually accepting how God made us? Good, good. Success in ministry maybe starts with us owning the talent He's given us, owning the wiring, and quit trying to rewire yourself. God didn't ask you to rewire yourself. God asked you to take the wiring that you've been given, place it in the hands of God, and let that grow and become everything that God intends for you to be. This has got to stop. Could success have anything to do with the people that are closest to us loving us and respecting us the most? Could that have anything—? So our thinking has to center around Him, His ways, His ways in and through us.

And somehow we have forgotten verses like this, as I hurry. Psalm 127:1: "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it." Matthew 16:18: "I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church" — I will build it. And the way I build it, if you'll work with Me — the way I build it — "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." John 15:5: "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me" — in Me, in Me, in Me — "and I in him" — in Him, in Him — "the same bringeth forth much fruit." Here it is. Here's the hammer: "for without me ye can do nothing." And so, until we start understanding that except He build the house we labor in vain, that "I will build it," and that He will build the church, and that without Him we can do nothing — then our mind is going to stay just like this.

But unfortunately, this is not even where it ends. It's an unfortunate thing, but it's a reality. Would you plug that in down there, please? Thank you very much. So: we've got all of this entangled thinking. Then you add this system right here with this thinking. And then add noise. Here you are: now it's noise. Boy, have you noticed how easy it is to hear from God when there's a lot of noise? Don't let the noise bug you at all, really. Why don't we up the noise in our life? Get another alarm for your phone, and add some noise, some way. Get it to where you can't think at all, to where we're so distracted we can't hear God. We could not — God would have to knock us down to get through to us, because all we got is noise. It's noise everywhere. We can't meditate. We can't concentrate. No — meditate? Are you kidding me? Psalm 1: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate." What — meditate? You kidding? We can't even concentrate. Why? We can't — listen to me — we can't even have a thought past five minutes, because we don't even know how to turn the ringer off on our phone. We don't even know— Hey, hey: it used to be that the enemy had to send devil-possessed people to our churches to disrupt everything. Now he doesn't, because everybody's got a smartphone. That's the truth. That is— You can't concentrate. There is no concentration. Anybody that has your number, if you keep your ringer on all the time, has the power to disrupt your concentration. If you call me and you don't get an immediate answer, if you get mad, get mad — because I like to have a thought every now and then, without everybody else being able to steal my thinking, steal my concentration. The Word is saying we should be meditating, and we're living life in a way we can't even concentrate.

So what happens is: with this system, with that thinking, with all this noise, we start working on the standard of measurement. That's what we do. This is the standard of measurement. This is Jesus Christ. This is our relationship with Jesus Christ. And so here it goes. Oh, it starts off very minimal at first, because when we start reducing this, at first we're probably kind of careful — you know, just kind of to where you really can't tell. You really can't tell that much from a long way off that I have really changed this at all. You can't really tell that. But what happens is, we get real comfortable with this system, and that thinking—

—just keeps going and going and going until we can't think. And then we've got the noise all ramped up, where we can't even hear God anyway. And so then it's really no problem at all to just start reducing Jesus Christ in our life. It's not that big of a deal. It just kind of comes natural. Whenever it's this system that's unopposed — when we don't have our affection set on things above, they're down here — we play into the system. We have all this entangled thinking. And then, man, keep that noise coming. "Hey, what's the latest? How about this voice? Are you trying that? Are you trying this? Have you gone to that conference? Have you heard about that guy? Have you heard about this?" My Lord, have mercy. You've got pastors leading churches, and can't hear from God about what has to happen at their church, at the time they're in, in their community — not some other community. I'm not against getting ideas from other places. Don't lock me into that. But unless you shut something down — no. It's noise. It's a system. It's entangled thinking. And here goes. Here goes the standard of measurement.

And so what ends up happening is, we just keep working on it, and we keep working on it. And what happens then is, we finally get down to a place where — "Now I've got a God I'm comfortable with. Comfortable. Now I got it. Now I got it. I can now hold You. I can handle this Guy. What — my measurement's fine. There's nothing wrong with my measurement."

And so the call today, in this message, in this conference: there's got to be some people that decide, "I'm not going to worship this. I'm not going to settle for this. I will find this. I'm not going to live this. It doesn't measure up." Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus Christ. We must do life and ministry in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

Can we stand and just lift our hands to heaven right now, and just ask God to speak to us? I wish somebody would really seek God right now, to see what needs to be changed — from what has been allowed, to what needs to be restored. Can you just seek God right now for that? Oh, I wish somebody would really seek after God right now. Ask God. Ask God. Ask God to restore. I believe that this is a moment right now, just here. Let's just take a moment. Let's just take a moment. Ask God to speak to you, to show you how to position yourself for Him to restore anything that we have allowed the system, our entangled thinking, noise — whatever — to diminish from what He wants us to have. Can we lift our hands together again now, and ask—