 what the psalmist meant when he said, I will enter his gates with thanksgiving. I will enter his courts with praise. We come in with praise on our lips. Why? Because we're redeemed. We got a song the angels can't sing. I feel it rising up in this house this morning. Before we sing a song or say a prayer or do anything else, I feel the praises of God rising up. Some of you have been waiting all week to get to this moment. Don't let us get in your way. We got songs to sing and there's things to do and messages to preach. God's got it all today. He's going to move when he wants to and how he wants to. But right now you got to praise. You've been waiting all week to join with other people who've been carrying the load and who've been walking that walk of faith. And you wanted to join with them and say, I just want to bring praise to the Lord. I want to take a moment and lift the praises of my God. I want to be around somebody else who knows what it is to pray in the midnight hour and to wake up in the morning with a song of praise on the lips to go throughout the day. And when everybody else is cursing the Lord, I'm blessing his name and walking in favor and walking in faith. You've come into the right house. If that's what you came to do, let me tell you, there's some folks here who will do it with you. We're going to praise the Lord today. We've come to bless him. We've come to honor him. We've come to glorify him. There's nobody like our God. Thank you today. This is your day. This is the day the Lord has made. We'll rejoice and be glad in it. We ask the anointing of the Holy Ghost to be upon this service today. Anoint the singers, the band. Anoint these people sitting in this congregation. The ones that are here, the ones that are walking in, the ones that will be here later. Lord, we ask the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Mantle us in the Holy Spirit today so that we can sing the high praises of God so that we can offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving in the sanctuary so that we can do what we were made to do to praise the king of kings and the Lord of lords, to exalt him because he's worthy. You've never given up on us, God. I won't give up anything but my praise to you. I'm gonna praise you early in the morning. It's a noon day and a night. I bless the Lord at all times, David said. Every day I will bless you, Lord. You're good, you're good, you're good, you're good. You're great, you're great, you're great, you're great. You're merciful, you're merciful. You're faithful, you're gracious, Lord. What do we praise you? Mm, don't you just love the Lord? You know it's all right to come to church and just take time to love the Lord. Oh, we just take time in your presence this morning. We begin the service, Lord. Putting yourself, ourself under your Lordship and your rulership, aligning ourself, Lord, beneath you. Move today as you wanna move and we'll give you all glory in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Come on, put your hands together this morning. Let's give the Lord praise today. He is worthy. We've come to bless him. Turn to somebody beside you and say, it's good to see you in the Lord's house this morning. Join me as we praise God today. Fitness this morning. I just see, I just see holiday. There's nothing else to see, I could just see holiday. Most of the job but continue to see holiday. That's how high his praise is. If you believe it, come on and shout, hallelujah. Look at your neighbor and say, hallelujah. It's the same in every language. The word hallelujah is everybody knows it in every language. So I don't care if you speak Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, whatever. The word hallelujah is the same in every language. So when you say my hallelujah belongs not to a president, not to a congressman, not to a pastor, football player, whatever, my hallelujah belongs to one person. And that is Jesus Christ. He deserves it all. God says, God says, I don't want just half of your heart. I don't want a quarter of your heart. I don't want just a little bit, no, no, no. I want all your heart. Cause he deserves it all because he gave it all for us. So why do we, if God did that for us, gave his whole entire self for us, why do we live at God to say I just wanna give you half? If he deserves it, God said, give it all to me. Let everything else go and give it all to me. So what I want everyone to do for me, I want everyone to lift your hands all over this building right now. Let's sing this, my hallelujah belongs to you. And I want you to give God the best praise of this morning right now. Come on, Will, sing it out. Say, in every language, say it to him. Say, come on, let's lift up a praise this morning. Come on, church, say, say it straight to him cause you deserve it. You deserve it, you deserve it. Say it again, let God hear you this morning. If he deserves it this morning, why don't you give God the greatest ovation of the morning. We thank you God, we give you praise, honor, and glory this morning. Turn to somebody beside you right now and welcome them and say, God deserves all the glory. Come on, fellowship this morning, find someone you don't know this morning. Shake their hand, let them know that they're welcome into the house of God this morning. And for everyone that's watching via live stream from around the world in Texas and Kenya, we welcome you. We're so glad that you have joined Paces Assembly this morning. We're so glad that you joined us this morning. If this is your first time here this morning, we want to welcome you to Paces Assembly. We are so glad that you are here. And at the end of service today, if this is your first time here, whether you're here with yourself or with your family, we want to get to know you and let you know how glad you were here this morning. But after the service is over, if you'll walk out into our for you, we have a place called Guest Central over to the right hand side when you walk out. We would love for you to step over there. We want to get some information about you, get to know you and your family if you're here with your family and how you can stay connected to our church let you know what's going on and Pastor Ms. Rita have a special gift just for you. So for all of our home folk and for everyone who's watching via live stream, why don't you give all of our guests a great big hand, let them know that they're welcome here this morning. And from around the world, we're so glad that you have joined us also this morning. Just a couple of announcements before we take up our time and offering. This Tuesday, August 23rd, do not forget is your time to vote. So do not forget to go and vote. There should be a voters guide that you received when you walked in this morning to let you know about the people that you'll be voting for and everything, but Pastor also wanted me to mention, just vote the Bible. Amen, amen. I'm not gonna stand up here and tell you who to vote for, just vote the Bible, amen. And so don't forget to do that. Also, starting point is starting, or it's a four week course starting September the 4th at 9 a.m. Our starting point class is a class for you to become a member of Pace Assembly and how you can get involved here in the ministries at Pace Assembly. So if you're interested in doing that, it will start September the 4th at 9 a.m. You can register online. If you cannot register online, just show up. If you'd like to become a member and everything just show up at 9 a.m., it will begin September the 4th and there will be some more information coming to you about that. So how many glad givers are to give this morning? How many are excited about giving this morning? You should be because the money in your pocket doesn't even belong to you. It belongs to God and God owns it all. So a lot of people say, well, how much should I give? Well, we can never out give God because God owns it all and owns it all. But God is ready to receive where your heart is of how much you love him and how much you, hey, everything he's given to you, God, we wanna give you back as much as we can. So let's pray this morning, ask God to bless our tithes and offering and then our ushers will take it up. Lord, we thank you to Jesus for everything you've given us. Lord, we thank you for your goodness and your mercy. We thank you that your presence is already in this room this morning. We feel it this morning. We welcome you in this house. So I wanna ask you to bless the tithe and the offering, bless the gift and the giver this morning. Meet and multiply it for the needs of your kingdom in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Lord, we come before you with praise and thanksgiving this morning with a great for every good and every perfect gift that comes down from the Father of light. Why don't you just thank him for the goodness of God in your life? Open your mouth up and thank him. He's put a roof over your head and shoes on your feet. He's put clothes on your back and provided everything you have need of. There's not one thing that you have need of that the Father has not supplied. Lord, we thank you right now. We thank you right now. We praise you right now. I want you to reach over and take somebody by the hand gently if you would. As you do that, you're coming into agreement today. What God desires to do, according to his word, it shall be done. There are more needs in this house than what anybody could ever describe. Not only here, but those that are watching online. But there's not so many needs that God cannot provide. And if you believe that this morning, I want you to come into agreement and ask the Lord, not for yourself, but for the person you've got a hold of their hand right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, whatever need they may have in their life, whatever vacuum, whatever void, whatever situation that they're walking through, whatever decision they need to make, whatever may be happening inside of their mind, soul and spirit. I pray today that they would hear a word that would unlock the cave, unlock the shackles, that their mind would be freed in the power of your spirit and that they can walk in the peace of God from this day forward. I pray for the anxious hearts that are here and watching online. We recognize, Lord, that you're a God of peace, you're a God of shalom. Speak that over the lives of people all around this auditorium and in their hearts, God. No matter what their future may be, see with their eyes, let them lift their eyes with vision from you to see that there is a God who is watching over their life and over his word to perform it. We give you glory for it. Now, without a hesitation, just slip those hands up and thank him right now for what God's gonna do inside of your life, both here and there online. Just open your mouth, don't worry about what it sounds like, just give him the glory. I'm telling you, whatever you bring him, he'll take it, he'll incubate it, he'll turn it around and multiply it to you. Lord, we give you glory right now. We thank you. We praise you because you've given us the privilege to come into this house today. And it is by your grace and glory, we're here, we give you glory right now. Amen. Everybody believes God's working in your life. Give him a shout of praise. Come on, give him the ovation of the morning. Would you do it? He's worthy. Hallelujah. Turn around and greet somebody in the name of the Lord. Tell him you're glad to see him. Amen. If you already did that, find somebody else. And I'll greet all of you that are watching online from around the world. We're glad that you're here. We're so thankful that you've tuned in. Share it out, if you would please. Let other people join into this worship service right here at Pace Assembly. And again, we're glad to have you. Pray that God will bless and touch your life today. What a blessing to see you in the house of the Lord and for you to be joining us today. Praise God. I was glad when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord. How about you? Nobody had to make me. I just got up and came. And it's good to be in the house of God. I know that this is the first completed week of school for people. And we're gonna pray for your trauma and your drama and your mama. How's that? All of that. Because I know how that is and everybody's trying to get adjusted. And you found out you didn't have what you thought you needed and all those kind of things. But don't you fret, God's got it, amen. And I believe that the Lord is gonna speak to our heart today. So glad again to have all of you. I wanna mention to you a couple of things you need to be aware of before I get into the word of God today. And that is, unfortunately, we thought we made enough. But we don't have enough out there. So you can pick up one of the cards and just scan the QR code for information concerning this coming week's election and subsequent elections. There was some endorsement guides from the Florida Family Action Committee and that they supply this. And unfortunately, there's not as much data as what I would like to get to you. So you can check it out on your own. I will tell you, with as many people as running, somebody's gonna get in there. And we needed to make sure that it's a righteous individual, someone who's gonna vote the Bible, amen? And so I encourage you, before you go to the polls, inform yourself, and you can get one of the cards that's out there. I apologize, we didn't have enough of these, but we thought we printed enough. But you can go online and check it out. And I encourage you to do that because you need to be an informed voter. You need to vote the Bible and you need to be an informed voter. Don't walk in there just pulling it because you saw somebody's signs down the road. How many of you understand what I'm talking about? How many of you understand the antichrist who's gonna have signs? And democracy's gonna vote him in. We don't need anti-God, anti-Bible principles. We got enough of that. We need some folks that'll stand up for righteousness. I'm gonna say a man to myself because some of you are not saying nothing. But I'm not talking about your political parties here this morning, I'm talking about righteousness to rule a nation and the people rejoice. And I cannot stress to you enough to be an active voter. That is this week, let's be praying about the election. And then in the subsequent elections in November, we want you to make sure that you're informed. We'll bring more information to you. It's vitally important. Also wanna mention to you to mark your calendars. For September the 11th at 6 p.m. on that Sunday night, I'll be bringing a Bible prophecy update, prophecy files update at 6 p.m. You'll not wanna miss it. There'll be information that's on social media that you can share it out. This morning as I was getting prepared to come to the service, someone texted me some information and I went to my computer to find out, get the verification on. And some of you that have been in our prophecy files messages before may have heard me mention what I call the brain trust, especially when Russia invaded the Ukraine. There was an individual that was the brain trust and has been the brain trust, so to speak, of Vladimir Putin. His ideologies, philosophies, his theology even, is one that is anti-God while it cloaks itself from religion. But it is all about the very spirit of Antichrist. The name of the man you may have heard me mention before is Alexander Dugan. You've ever heard that name before? It is one that is synonymous with spiritism and all of that and the ideologies that are literally driving the force and encouraged Vladimir Putin to engage and invade the Ukraine. So understand that this is the brain thought behind the actions that you see in the Ukraine. Well, this morning or yesterday, and I don't know exactly who that may have been, but his daughter was assassinated and they were thinking that they were attacking him. Instead, they killed his daughter. I want you to know this is a very troublesome time that we're in because when you attack the daughter of someone who is the ideal ideologist behind all of the philosophies that are going on and the attack in the Ukraine, all that's going to do is ramp up what has been. The United States of America in recent days has sent B-52 bombers into the United Kingdom to prepare for the possibility of an attack on the nuclear sites, nuclear plants in the Ukraine. The attack on those plants could have ramifications for the entirety of the globe. Pastor, you're just trying to scare us? No, I'm trying to tell you the truth. I'm trying to tell you to get prepared and I'm also trying to tell you that Jesus Christ is coming ready or not. That's a good place to say a man right there if you're ready. If you're not, it might scare the liver out of you. And should, I can tell you I'm gonna be very plain. Every sinner should be scared beyond their wits, but every saint should be looking up to see the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're not saved today by the end of this service, I'm gonna give you the greatest invitation that's ever been known to man. That is to come and meet Jesus face to face at an altar prayer. I'm already telling you my intention. My intention is to reap the harvest as quickly as we possibly can before the door is shut. Anybody with me on that mission right there? Amen. Now, I'm gonna tell you that's the reason why you exist as a believer. It's not to receive another blessing. If you got any more blessed than what you are right now, I can assure you that you would be already overwhelmed, but I can tell you, God is using the blessings in your life to reach one more soul with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the driven purpose of the church. That's the reason why we're bringing you prophecy files on September the 11th. I want you to help me get the word out. It will be something that will, and you bring every person you can. At this moment, I'm not sure of the content will be able to be streamed live, so it will be here, and then probably edited out. We may be able to stream it, but that's a decision we gotta make a little closer. There's more information than what I'll ever get to. So mark your calendars for that and make plans to be with us. And then all of you that are paced young adults, high school graduates up to 30 singles, right after the service, Shane is gonna be over to my left and she'll be handing out the tickets that have been prepared for you for this coming Friday night, and we want you to make sure that you're involved and engaged in that, and join us for that very special event down at the Wahoo Stadium. Don't forget that, and you can pick up your tickets right after the service to my left. Amen. I want you to take your Bibles this morning. I preached last weekend concerning the anointed assignment. Anointed assignment. And I can assure you that you can take one verse of Scripture and think you have exhausted it. But if you'll go back and look at it again, the God of heaven will open up even more for you to be able to understand what it's all about. How many of you understand that you need to understand more? You need better understanding. So stand with me with you this morning, and I want you to shake off all the thoughts of tomorrow because you can't do anything about that. You might not even arrive there. Say, Amanda, your neighbor. And you can't do anything about yesterday because if you didn't get the grass cut, it's still just as high as weeds. So don't try to mow your grass or do your shopping in your head while you're in this building or watching online. I want you to be fully engaged in the Word of God. I don't believe that what I'm gonna bring to you today is just something that needs to fall on the ground in front of you or you toss it to somebody else. But I believe that God wants to speak to our heart, and so I must return back to the book of Jeremiah, chapter number one. Jeremiah, the first chapter, and then we're also gonna go over to Jeremiah, chapter 29 and verse number 11. I want you to look with me here this morning in Jeremiah, chapter number one, praise God. Don't miss this coming Wednesday night service at seven o'clock. We are involved in the lesson concerning discipleship, following Christ. If you're not here on Wednesday night, it is a perfect time for you to dig into the Word of God with us, and we want you to get you here and get your kids here so that they can have that midweek infusion, dare I say, a midweek booster. Could I say you need a jab of the Holy Ghost in the middle of the week? And I came to tell you, I'm just a guy to jab you. Come on somebody, amen. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter number one, the Bible reads like this, and it's imperative that we get this in our spirit. The words of Jeremiah, the son of Halkonai, of the priests that were at Adithoth, in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah. In the 30th year of his reign, it came also in the days of Jehochim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. Under the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. Under the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. There's a very important factor here. We have time, we'll come back to it. Just keep that in your mind. Verse four, then the word of the Lord came into me, saying to Jeremiah, God is speaking to Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Anybody remember last week's message? And before thou came as forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee, a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Jeremiah, oh, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, say not, I'm a child. For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations, over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down and to destroy and throw down, and to build and to plant. For all of you that wanted to throw down, there's a scriptural reference for you, just throw down. Verse 11, more over the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seeest thou? And he said, I see the rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten. Why does he say that? Because the almond is the first fruits offering. It's the first that is being received in the harvest. My word to perform it, I will hasten my word to perform it. Now you're familiar with Jeremiah 29 and verse number 11, but I want to back up just a little bit and catch a few preceding verses. Jeremiah, look with me in chapter number 29. The Bible is speaking here after all these years of Jeremiah's prophecies and speaking, and he's been rejected on every hand, and they've gone into Babylonian captivity that children of Israel have. And before you want to regulate that to some ancient story that's back so far in the past that it's not relevant, I want you to know all of the sins and all of the things that Israel was doing are happening in our land right now. So that is to say that if it's happening in our land right now and God allowed Babylon to come and take them over and take them captive, then ladies and gentlemen, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and his judgment will not be held off forever. There will come a time, there will come a time after the church has been raptured off of this earth, there will come a time when this world will go into judgment just like they did because God is gonna have a remnant of people and he's gonna purge and he's gonna turn his heart back towards the nation of Israel, the apple of his eye. That's what's gonna happen during the tribulation period and what we see is a prophecy that comes through Jeremiah and Babylon takes him captive and it's a horrible time and he's prophesying to them and he comes down to chapter number 29 and there are false prophets just like there are now, false teachers, false preachers, apostles and evangelists, false ones that are saying, hey, everything's gonna be fine, don't worry. But ladies and gentlemen, when you see everything is not fine, don't listen to a prophet or someone else tell you everything is fine. When they're killing people in the streets every day, everything is not fine. When our borders are open, everything is not fine. When inflation is off of the chart, everything is not fine. Say not peace, peace. But he says when they say that, then sudden destruction shall come. So there's these false prophets that are prophesying even against Jeremiah, the prophet of God and what he's saying. But Jeremiah has a word from the Lord. All of that being said, he comes down to verse number 10 in Jeremiah 29. Let's get the context here. And Jeremiah says, for thus saith the Lord, after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, God said, I will visit you. How many of you want God to visit you? And what you gonna do when you get there, God, I will perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. What place was that back to Jerusalem? Now you get the context of chapter 29, verse 11. God said, while they're in captivity, y'all, while they're in bondage, while they're in sin, while they're all messed up, God said, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you. Some people may think that God's thinking a bad thought towards us and all of that, but the Bible is very clear. He said, I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord. Well, what kind of thoughts are they? Thoughts of peace. Is anybody with me here this morning? I don't know if the bus came by and got you. And not of evil. So anything that's going on evil, that's not God's thought. And anything that's disturbing the peace, that's not God's thought. And to do what? And to give you an expected end. One translation says a hope and a future. So God's thought is about your hope and your future and expected end. In other words, God has already, according to the book of Isaiah, plan your end from the beginning. God never starts anything until he's already ended it. God does not start something before he has already ended it. God has already finished before he ever starts it. God already finished your life in the context of the drawing and the purpose and the plan of God for your life. And then he said, now it's time for you to start. In other words, there are no surprises. God is not surprised at all by anything that is happening for God cannot be surprised. You will be surprised, I will be surprised, but God will not and cannot be surprised. Everything God does is intentional and with forethought. That's the reason why the book says that he's thinking a thought about us. And then he goes on real quick, verse 12. This is just so good. You can't leave it off. Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me. Well, if I seek you, will I find you? Yeah, you gonna find me. But the only way you can find me is if you search for me with all of your heart. Don't come passive. I do believe Pastor T was standing up here talking about not coming in a little bit or a quarter of the way or whatever it may be, but with all that is within you, don't expect all of God when you don't give him all of you. He said, you'll find me if you seek me with all of your heart. How many of you are ready to go after God and hear his word this morning? Come on, lift that hand up, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ today. Let your word go forth as a mighty two-edged sword. And I pray mighty God right now that you would anoint every ear to hear what the Spirit would say. Not what Joy Rogers says, but what the Spirit would say today. For you've come to set people free, to heal, to save, to deliver, and to set a vision in front of us, Lord, that the enemy himself cannot thwart. We give you praise for it today in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody believes it, shout a great big amen. Turn to three people and tell them you got an anointed assignment. You got an anointed assignment. You might wanna write a few of these passages of scripture down because they have a portion to do with this message that I'm bringing to you today concerning your anointed assignment from the book of Proverbs chapter 19 verse 21. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Consider Job 42 and two. I know that you can do all things, as Joe's speaking, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Consider the word of the Lord in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse nine. He who saved us and called us with a holy calling not because of our own works, but because of his own purpose and grace which he had given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Here's Psalm 138 in verse number eight. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the works of your hand. Whatever you're doing in my life, Lord, keep on doing it. I don't wanna be left out of the purpose of God. Proverbs 16 verse four. The Lord has made everything for its purpose. Watch this, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Isn't that something? He even allowed Pharaoh to come on the scene just to provoke everybody to get out of Egypt. Do you know that there's some things that you would not do unless the Lord disturbed the nest? Made it uncomfortable for you? I want you to know your highest level in God is not your comfort. The highest level for God in you is not for you to be comfortable. It's fine to be at peace, but it's not fine to be comfortable. We have an apathetic mindset today that says both in the world and in the church, if it happens, let God do it. We'll just wait on the Lord. But I came to tell you, God's waiting on you. You're not waiting on God. This is critically important to fulfill the assignment for which you've been sent to this earth. And I know you've got a lot of plans, but God said at the end of the day, all of your plans, unless they line up with the purposes of God, are off-chart. They're off course, because the purpose of God will be performed in your life and in this world regardless of your own personal plans. You have an assignment for which God has sent you to this earth. Our God-given assignment, that is to every one of us, is an assignment, a mission, a position in which that person is assigned to accomplish what the call of God is and the purpose of God for their life. And God has already, before you were even born, perfectly equipped us to succeed in that assignment. There is, listen, there is no place in the Word of God God ever makes provision for failure. Now you might see some failures, what we would constitute failures, but God is such a redeemer. He is such a God who can restore the years back that no one, if they'll stay on the purpose of God, will ever fail. God doesn't write a book for failures. When you read it in the book of Revelation, you find out even to the seventh church, the Laodicean church, he says to every one of them, to him that overcome, to him that overcome, to him that overcome. I want you to know the Bible is a book for overcomers. It's not for a book for the lazy or those that are sad sacked or suck their thumb. When you serve and your attached purpose to God Almighty, the assignment He gives to you may look overwhelming in your own eyes, but I can promise you the Bible tells us with God, all things are possible. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, the Bible says. This means, ladies and gentlemen, that your nationality, your race, your sex, even where you were born, were decided by God. You were geographically assigned for the place, for the city, for the location where God wants you with a specific assignment. Understand you are not an accident. You are God's intention. Look at your neighbor and tell him, you are not an accident. You're God's intention. One of the reasons why people lose their way is because they think somehow that they were just dropped on this planet by accident. Maybe a parent or somebody told them you're just a freak of nature. You're an accident. You'll never amount to anything, but I came to declare to you today, you are not an accident. You are in the mind of God, no matter if you were born to a single mother and you were raised without a father, no matter if you've been an orphan in the foster home, no matter where you've been and what your background is, you are not an accident. You are the intentional mind of God with purpose and an assignment. Life on earth has no meaning when you don't know why God placed you on this earth and it's hard for you to be able to do until you understand why and who. Jesus prayed this prayer, don't take my disciples out of the world, but keep them in it from evil so they can accomplish their assignment on this earth. Jesus is telling us very clearly that it is not about escapism, it's about you finding out what God's purpose and assignment is while you're on this earth and you have a short time to do it. You're in time and you have a short time to do it. It's important for you to understand from the life of Jeremiah that Jeremiah was faced with a difficult assignment. I don't know that if the, this is the reason why God doesn't tell us all of the things that we're gonna have to encounter. Are you with me? This is the reason why God doesn't tell us every situation we're gonna have to face. That's the reason why God doesn't tell us that, hey, when you are 25 years old, you're gonna face this. When you're 35, you're gonna face this. When you're 55, when you're 80, you're gonna face this and this and this because we would opt out of the journey of knowing what might we face. And so God lets us walk by faith and not by sight. I want you to get your pen and paper out, I'm gonna give you some things here this morning to help you because many people are on this earth floating from day to day, not knowing their assignment, not knowing their purpose. And it's important for us to understand that God is by his spirit, a wanting to get people on purpose and in the purpose of God, the plan of God so the kingdom of God can be built. Are you with me right here? Now, if you'll pray diligently and we might have to take up another offering because we're having trouble with the air conditioning and I just wanna let you know, if you're fanning right now, welcome to camp meeting. We're gonna throw some sodas on the floor and give you a Jesus fan. It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, isn't it? They're working on it, so just keep fanning and if you fan real good, your neighbor will like you better, come on. We've gotta know what our purpose is, otherwise we try to live our life vicariously through somebody else. That's the reason why people aren't fulfilled because they're always comparing themselves to someone else or they're trying to live through somebody else. Now, the Bible has a specific name for that. It's called hypocrisy. Now, you need to understand the root of that is actor. They're acting like something they're not. So for all of you that are celebrating Hollywood, are you all with me out here? Don't let the heat get you. An actor is somebody who's trying to do something that they're not. They have a title, but they don't know the real experience. That's the reason why that whenever and the Spirit of the Lord was dealing with my heart this morning, that's the reason why some people find it hard to be able, even Christian people, to worship the Lord because we have compared ourselves or we're trying to live vicariously through somebody else's eyes or my daddy was a great sports person so I'm gonna be that. And he tries to live through his child's eyes trying to make them something that they're not. That's the reason why the Bible says train the child up in the way that they should go. That when they're old, they won't depart from it. Quit trying to make them who you are that you didn't finish. Can I say it like this? Stop taking rewards for races you didn't run. I'm gonna let that one sink in just a little bit. Stop taking rewards. In other words, here you are waving your banner that you've done great things, but if you don't have that experience, you don't know how to even sing that song. That's the reason why a lot of the music today, and I love any kind of praise and worship that's gonna lift up Jesus, but the reason why we don't connect is because it was written from the writer's perspective and experience. So when we start singing it, it doesn't mean anything to me. Until we've walked through an experience. I'm just saying words and it doesn't connect, but whenever I get up and start saying, you know, the Lord is my shepherd, suddenly it connects with me because I have had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and I've had to go through things that were fearful to me, but the Lord has always been my shepherd and he gives me the reason. I don't always understand why I had to walk through it, but as long as I've got the shepherd, there will be a purpose to my pain. So Jeremiah has this horribly difficult assignment that is given to him, and this is it in the nutshell. God says, Jeremiah, I want you to be my prophet, you're gonna be my prophet, I called you before you were ever in your mother's womb, you were in my mind, in the heavenly's eternal past, before I ever brought you into time, and you're gonna be my man, I'm gonna put my words in your mouth, but I want you to know nobody is gonna like you. Nobody's, in fact, they're not gonna like you, they're not gonna like your message, they're gonna hate you, and all this kind of stuff. Pastor, I don't see that in there. Well, you gotta look in chapter number one and look down, just look, there's just one verse of scripture that lets us have some insight into what's going on, and this might be a help to you. Verse number eight, be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee. Now, you don't have to have deliverance unless you're gonna get into some trouble. So God was giving an indication to the prophet right here that there's gonna be some times that I'm gonna have to deliver you, but whatever you do, this is your God-given assignment. It don't belong to your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, it belongs to you, and I have called you, ordained you, anointed you, and I put my words in your mouth, and nothing will satisfy you unless you stay on your assignment. So I find myself, and before I give you these points here this morning that I believe will help you, I find myself yesterday because the faucet in the sink is not functioning at the house like it should, and my wife has very graciously reminded me week after week, Joey, can you do something? It's gonna fall apart. It's gonna fall apart. Now I have had, I've had to do some plumbing before, but I came to tell you, I am not a plumber. Have I got any witnesses from some minute? I know you wanna be tough, I know you wanna do all that, but the best thing you could do is find out early in life what you're not, cause some things will kill you. I am not an electrician. Now I'm just telling you, I came from a long line of electrician. My daddy was Gulf Power, my brother sold electrical equipment, my other brother did a high line work with Steve Bozeman right here. I even went to college for a day to learn the protons and critons and whatever else that it was, and it was all Greek to me. Follow me now. And I've attempted many times to wire things up, but if you don't know what you're doing, there is danger to you and danger to your entire house if you're operating outside of your purpose. So I give you permission this morning, gentlemen, and I know you love your wife so much and I do too. I love my wife so much and she wants me to do something about it, but tomorrow, Brother George, I'm calling a plumber. Come on, you don't have to clap for me cause some of y'all are scared to do anything about it. Your false has been leaking for months now and you've tried it and you put tape all around it and you think duct tape will fix everything, but I came to tell you, you better call somebody whose purpose and knows what they're doing. See, you hear God up there trying to tell you right now? That's what that thunder rolling out there. So I'm saying to you that when you get on your purpose, when you get on your assignment, there's an anointing that comes upon you that makes it easy to do what you do. Nobody had to coax me to get to this pulpit this morning. Nobody had to tell me, hey, don't forget, get in there and study. He didn't have to tell me any of that because there is only inside of me my assignment every day that I gotta feed myself so I can feed you. I feed myself. So I can feed you. I don't wanna give you something that I haven't eaten up and if it tastes good to me, I'm gonna put it on the table for you and that's what I'm bringing to you today that the assignment may be difficult and the way may be hard, but if you'll stay on your assignment, God has placed an anointing upon your life that you will fulfill the purpose of God for which you've been sent. Here's number one for you to write down that your assignment is something God put in you before you were born. That's hard for us to wrap our mind around except Jeremiah, this is just one passage of scripture. We can find others that are in the Word of God. Before I formed thee, this is predestined work that God does. Before I formed you in the belly and before thou came as forth out of the womb, I sanctify thee and ordained thee to be a prophet to the nation. This may be a hard thing to wrap your mind around but get this this morning, you were in the mind of God before you were born into time. Conceive the possibility that before time, God already knew you. In fact, he didn't just know you or know about you, he knew everything and he still chose you to do it. You could have been born at any time, any place, to anybody, anywhere in the world but look where God planted you. In fact, it is literally a geographical placement for your assignment. In other words, don't go somewhere where they just tolerate you, go somewhere where they celebrate you because when your assignment starts working like it should, I don't have to ask the question, am I supposed to be here? Am I not supposed to be here? Is it the will of God? I know when the anointing flows, here I am walking in the purpose and in the plan of God. Are y'all with me out here? When he needed someone to do the thing that he needed, this is a challenge for me because I know what I've been since I came into my being. I know where I've been, what I've done and God said I still want you. If you look back over your life and watch all the times that you got off assignment and God picked you up and said you don't belong here. It's a picture of Jeremiah 18 where he says, he said God called me to come down to the potter's house and to consider the work that was on the wheel and he said when I looked at it, it was marred in the hands of the potter. I thank God that I'm still in the hands of the potter. I may be messed up, but at least I'm in the hands of the potter. I may have some imperfections in me, but I'm still in the hands of the potter. And you know what? I don't have to sit there and watch the hands of the potter. He don't have time to do this and put his hands on me, but he's got his foot going. And I can't see all that's spinning my word around, but I can know that the hands of the potter are shaping me and molding me into what he has purposed me to be. Now this may seem pediatric and elementary, but you'd be shocked to know about those that have grown up in age and they still don't know where they belong, what they're supposed to be doing and how they're supposed to be doing it. I'm calling the body of Christ together as one to accomplish your call. And if you're the little toe on the left foot, then rest assured, all you gotta do is ask Anthony Davis this morning. He will tell you how important that little toe on the left foot, I didn't mean to call you out, but there you are. He dropped a candle on his toe out of his closet and it crushed that little toe. I can assure you that little toe is telling him everything about what he's going to do and what he's not going to do. Come on, somebody, but it makes no difference. The doctor said, I don't see how you can not be in pain. He said, pastor, things are healing up. Things are already matter. You know why? Cause God put in the body everything to accomplish and to heal and to set it informed because that's what God created. I wish, I wish, let me teach this. When he needed somebody, he chose you. Just pull your old preacher finger out, look at somebody telling him he chose you, he chose you. Yeah. He let you come from his mind into time and you existed before you were born. You were preordained, preordered. Everybody's so amazed about Door Dash as if it's a new concept. Order it and pick it up. I came to tell you, God foreordered you and then he picked you up and put you in the right place to accomplish his will. Don't try to be somebody you're not. That's the reason why that we mess up our lives and mess up the lives of other people is because we're trying to do things that God has not preordered us to do. Come on, stay with me. You've been placed into time. You came out of eternity past into time and what time was it, the right time? When did you arrive on time? Come on somebody. The right time, the right place on time. God sets you in that place. He already had a plan. He already had an assignment and he placed, listen, so we would not mistake where we were supposed to, what we were supposed to have in order to accomplish it. He put everything on the inside of us, all the gifts, all the talents, all of the ability, everything we need is found in Christ on the inside of us. That's the reason why he said in John 15, without me you can do nothing. Now he wasn't saying that you can't do things because you've got to understand the difference between your gift and the anointed gift. A lot of people can sing the pain off the wall but just because they've got that gift doesn't make it anointed enough to break yokes of bondage off of the lives of people. A lot of people can take a microphone and talk out of the Word of God but unless there's an anointing there that has the power to destroy the yoke, ladies and gentlemen, there's no power behind the gift. Know the difference between your gifting and your assignment that is anointed by God. And when you find that out, you can walk with your head up and you don't have to ask Mother, may I, to anybody, I'm chosen whether you like it or not, I'm called whether you like it or not, I love you. I'm gonna do what God's called me to do when he's called me to do it. Just sit there, I'll get there for you. I just wanna let you know your children are not just going to school just to go to school, they're going on an assignment that you've gotta keep them in the narrow way in order to accomplish what God has called them to do. Because rest assured along the way there's gonna be plenty of obstacles, plenty of devils, plenty of distractions, plenty of detours. I don't care how much that I saw it on the text or I read it in the news or the TV broadcast said that the road was gonna be closed. I don't care that there were signs all around. That said, Spencer Field is gonna be closed for some work. I drove right up on top of it the other day. Don't laugh at me, you were right behind me, come on. You know what I'm talking about? All of the signs out there that said this is a detour, don't go this way. Ladies and gentlemen, the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. And I want you to know that you're not here by accident. It's time for you to accomplish what God has sent you because we got a short amount of time. Your assignment has already been gifted to you before you were. Here's the second thing you need to know. I'm just dropping some things on you this morning. Your assignment is not your decision, it is your discovery. Well, I think I'm gonna be this. How many people have I talked to that's graduated college that are paying the bill for something they're not even doing right now? Before you try to tell God what you're gonna do, you might wanna ask him, God, what do you want me to do? What have you gifted me to do? Cause I'm looking across this auditorium, I'm seeing people that are sitting out here. Let me just tell you something. Here's Heidi sitting up here. If you need somebody to train and take care of your horse and all that kind of that, she is the horse whisperer of Pace Assembly. Now for me, if they put me out there messing around with them horses, you could go to office depot and there'd be a whole lot more glue on the shelf because I would be a short. One of them would kick me and I'd have to kick him back. Y'all, y'all, I know you don't kick back. Everything's wonderful and smooth and rosy and shalom in your life. But I just wanna let you know, if you operate outside of your gifting and calling, it will show up very quickly. That's the reason why your assignment is not your decision, it is your discovery. I am to discover what God wants me to do. When I ask most 18-year-olds graduating high school, I've done it many, many times over the years. What are you gonna do, what are you gonna be? Even middle schoolers, I love their answers. Now, if you ask my little six-year-old, grandchild, the other day, what was she? Yeah, yeah, she said, I'm gonna be a doctor. Six-year-old wants to be a doctor. High school are getting ready to walk across the plank and grab the certificate. I don't know. This one I love. I'm gonna take a year off. You better get a job. Come on, where am I helping here? Where is mom and daddy at? 55-years-old still up in there eating your greens. Come on, somebody, you better stop. Listen to, write this down. First Corinthians, chapter two, verse seven. But we speak, Paul said, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even, watch this, the hidden wisdom which God ordained, there's that word, before the world unto our glory. Verse nine of that says, I has not seen. And here's not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man. What God has prepared, prepared, pre-ordained, pre-ordered, He has prepared some stuff for those that love Him. This is so critical, verse 10, watch this. Now, this is where we wanna get off the train. I has not seen, here's not heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those that love Him. Ooh, praise God, wait a minute. Watch verse 10. But God revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. So we're content to play around in the kiddie pool, when God is calling us out into deep water to search the deep things of God, because He said, if you'll commune with me, if you'll fellowship with me, the Spirit is going to reveal the purpose for which I sent you here, and show you what you're supposed to do, where you're supposed to do it, and for how long, come on, somebody, He has hidden it on the inside of us in Christ Jesus. But He told Jeremiah, He said, before you were born, I knew you. Before you were born, I already sanctified you. Before you were born, I ordained you, I anointed you. How does that come about? How do I know what my purpose is? Well, first of all, you gotta search the Word of God, because the Word of God searches you. And this is where you find your purpose for living. See, I told them Wednesday night, mom and dad on the florist, and I worked in the florist, and then I had people learn how to do stuff in there, and then people come up after they sold the florist, and said, well, wonder why your mom and dad didn't give it to you, and for a little while, I felt a little slighted. I went to work at another florist. I learned how to do some stuff there. And then I went to work at Dell Shams. Y'all don't know nothing about no Dell Shams, but Dell Shams, so I could learn for all of you that are sitting out here that work the late shift and are just waking up, watching from 11 to seven on the cat and dog food aisle. I was all right with the bags of dog food, but that cat stuff was really messing me up, especially at three o'clock in the morning. Y'all ain't talking to me. I had to do that for a while. I needed to learn that because I have an understanding of all the people that walk in here and say, well, Pastor, I got shift work. I got, I understand all that, but I'm gonna tell you, I didn't stop there because somehow I knew what my purpose was. Wait that on the inside of me. Come on, somebody. That was just a teaching process for me. And so I stepped from that into selling crackers for Lance crackers and before that I went, I said, you know what, you know the Lord will give you the desires of your heart, but he'll teach you something if you'll stay there. So I said, you know what, I wanna be a firefighter. Cause as a kid, I grabbed the garden hose run out there and put the tree out right in the front yard, right there, there it is. I said, I wanna be a firefighter. And then we went up to my wife's cousins and we were visiting on New Year's Eve up there in north of Laurel Hill and they had this brush field out here and cows that were out there. He said, come on out here, Joey. I need to burn some garbage and we went out there and the wind was starting to pick up. And he said, like that. And next thing you know, cows were running away cause the field was on fire. I said, this is what I wanna do. This is exciting. When the sirens, when the sirens go off around here right now, I wanna jump on the tailboard of that truck. The problem is, I don't jump as high as I used to. At 20, I could jump up there, throw that dude around, that rope around my neck. So let's go, you know, and I did that for a while. So it taught me how to deal with people in crisis, brother Rob, it taught me how to deal with people when they were having trouble in their lives. And so I wouldn't get so wrapped up in it that I couldn't be any good to them. Y'all just sit there, I'm just talking about me. And so we left there and I went over there and started selling crackers for a living in the Lance truck, drove all up and down the highway, all the way down to Destin, 38, all that kind of stuff, coming back and forth, but it still wasn't my purpose. It still wasn't my purpose. I just couldn't figure it out. And after about a year of that, you know, I'm getting over there and all of a sudden, lady down there at that old restaurant, she looked at me and said, you stole some Stroh's beer. Stroh's beer. I'm listening to the gospel music on my truck radio and just worshiping God back and forth. And then she hit me with, I stole some beer. I said, well, first of all, ma'am, I didn't steal any beer, but I wanna let you know, if I was going to drink, I would be drinking it somewhere where my pinky would be up somewhere. So this nasty mess down here ain't gonna do it. Y'all just sit there, I know you're all saints and you were born the second Immaculate Conception, but I just came to tell you, when they lie on you and you know it ain't right, look for a door, God's about to advance you. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, see, there's a purpose in your life and yet I had to learn some stuff. Y'all don't throw a two-year-old behind the wheel of a car. Come on, somebody. You don't make an eight-time. I don't care how much you've been called a God. Nine years old is not the time you hit the pulpit and start preaching. And yet at nine years old, dad was pastoring over in Niceville. We were driving over there and I was driving. We'd always drive past the flight line at Eglin Air Force Base and I looked out there and every time I looked in my little nine-year-old mind, I saw the flight line, the lights of the landing, the landing lights that were right there. It went like this. It went straight. It went up, over, down, and straight again. And every time my little nine-year-old mind looked at that, I saw a pulpit of a church. And I'll never forget driving that one particular time over to Niceville and I looked at my mom and dad's in the front seat of the car. I said, you know what, one day I'm gonna preach right there. Because in my mind, I had to, you know why? Because God had already put it in my heart. See, what He'll do is He'll show you the end from the beginning and then He takes you back like a movie and starts walking you through the process and you don't understand what's going on and some of you are still in the dark today because you've been trying to live and do something outside of your design purpose. But when you start walking in the purpose of God, there's an oil that'll run down your head that even when the enemy says you stole the beer, you say, ain't drinking no beer. I'm drinking something that's coming from another world. Don't you worry about me. I'll keep right on walking. Come on, somebody. It is your discovery. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. And on and on it went, I can look in my past and you should too. And realize that everything that has ever happened to you, regardless of the past, you know, the bad stuff God don't deal. Oh, oh, oh, you better check out Romans 828. For we know, is anybody listening to me out here this morning? For we know, do you know that he'll take the good and the bad, mix it together and make a cake out of your life to the glory of God? For we know that he works all things according to his purpose. Are you with me? Jeremiah, I knew you. I sanctified you. I'm gonna tell you, discovery is not your overnight process. I'm called to be a preacher. I hear these people. I'm called to be a preacher. Next thing you know, they wanna go open up a church somewhere. They don't even know Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Come on, somebody. Y'all just sit there. Everybody got a call and they think the next day I'm supposed to go open up a church. Well, you can do it. Your gift is burning. I get it. But I'm gonna tell you, David was anointed three times. And it was still before he ever had the position of the king. I wish you would talk to me, somebody. Anointed him as a boy, but he wasn't ready to be a king. He anointed him in the priest's office, the prophet's office, and the king's office. And yet he was not even to the place. He had to be proven. Your assignment will be proven. Come on now, your assignment has to be proven. You can't just say, I will be. Whenever I went and applied at the fire department, I didn't know nothing about nothing. And the first thing they said is, strap this air pack on and climb that 90 foot ladder. And if you make it in the bucket, you can come back tomorrow. Somebody told me this past week, they hired somebody to come on the job and they're giving them a good pay and all that kind of stuff. And he said, I turned around and I told him and said, you need to go up on this roof right here and fix it. He said, I'm sorry, I don't do no heights. Be like a nurse over there in your office going, oh, oh, blood, it's just, oh, blood, I can't do blood. What did you think when you took the classes for years and years and years? Did you think you were gonna walk in with a little white hat on and your little white stockings and walk up to them and hey, how y'all doing? No, you're gonna grab a bedpan and help them get up on top of it. Come on somebody, because there's some nasty that you gotta walk through. But if you walk through the process, you'll discover the reason why you were born and alive right now. Somebody clap your hands if you know what your purpose is. I gotta hurry. Seasons may change, but God's assignment will never change. The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. So you can frustrate yourself on your assignment because you don't wanna do it. See, that's a problem being raised in this church and raised in a godly home. Because if you had, and even if you weren't raising a godly home, but you got a grandmother that's praying, somebody I hit up the other day and they were so frustrated and not living for the Lord, I was that close. I was right there, but I didn't wanna, you know, what kind of mild guy. I mean, I don't wanna embarrass anybody. But I wanted to ask the question, have you got a grandmother that's praying for you? Because you are a frustrated man. I'm just telling you right now. Come on somebody, I've had kids tell me through their parents, you know what, Mama, stop praying for me. I told them, don't you ever stop praying for them? Cause the gifts and the calling of God is without repentance. And the only thing that's holding your feet to the fire is the fact you got a praying mama and a grandmama and a granddaddy who cares enough about your future to not turn you loose to the wolves. Your assignment is to be accepted, not altered. Sin will alter your assignment. Bible tells us very clearly what our assignment is. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners in recovery of sight to the blind to release the oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Jeremiah had some ups and downs and some ins and outs and all kind of stuff going on. They put him in prison and I was just reading in my devotion this past week. I just laughed right out loud when I read it. Somebody you know what I'm talking about. Jeremiah had his letter twice thrown up and thrown into the fire by King Zedekiah. But when Babylon, see this is the reason why I'm waiting on revival. I'm through chasing people down to serve the Lord. Get in the ark and stay in the ark. Mike, come to church, I might not. Hey, Mike, Jesus, Mike, come get you any, might not. Talk to me. I don't know why you gotta have 60 people following you up and a remind on your telephone and a cell, you can do everything else but when it comes to God, your assignment is shelved. I got news for you, my dear friend. God is looking for those that are looking for him and I wanna stay close enough that I'll sacrifice other stuff and get near God. So, so, so, so all the preachers that are frustrating yourself, just stop frustrating because when Babylon starts knocking on the door and taking their kids away, come on, somebody. Zedekiah pulled old Jeremiah out of the prison. He said, what, does the Lord have anything to say? He said, yeah, the Lord's got something to say that Babylon's coming to get you and put your eyes out. We don't wanna hear that pastor, that's political. Oh no, it's not. It is truth being spoken unto power and I wanna say to all those that are in leadership and those that might get in leadership and everybody that texts me this morning and asks me to pray for you for this election, I came to tell you the only way you're gonna get support from me and this church is if you'll do by principle what the book says, that's the only way I'm gonna vote for you. Don't care if you're black, white, male, or female, do you stand for God and God's principles. That's what I wanna know. Y'all sit down, that's too political for some of you. Can I give you another one? Number three, your assignment is a problem God created you to solve. This is the one I wanted to get to. Your assignment is created for you to solve. Did you know that you were created to come to solve a problem on this earth? You didn't know that. Well the mechanic solves car problems. Come on, because you can't. I tried to be a mechanic too. I tried to be cool in my early marriage life. She had this beautiful red four phermon. And the heater core went out. This is before YouTube and everything else. And even the manual was only written in Latin or something the mechanic could read. So I said, well I'll try this one because we gotta get some air, we don't have enough, we don't have enough money to take it to the mechanic. And so I took the dashboard apart. Don't laugh at me, don't laugh at me. Hey, you gotta take the dash out. Hey, you gotta get in there, the heater core because whoever designed that thing put it way down in there. And there's a million, million little screws between here and there. I did good. I put the heater core in there and I started putting the dashboard back. Got all the dashboard back in, everything up there. I thought, problem when I got through, I still had a handful of screws. Have you ever tried to put your life back together and you wound up going, wait a minute, I still got a handful? Something wrong here, up in here. Well, it didn't reveal itself. Ha, ha, ha, ha, didn't reveal itself till we started driving. And when the dash starts going up and down like that, you say something wrong. I didn't tell her. I said, Rita, I still got some screws left. I don't know where they, it's not, it must be like the appendix, it don't matter, just leave it. That's when I found out I'm not a mechanic. But a mechanic solves car problems and how many of you know the dentist can solve some tooth problem? And lawyers can solve some legal problems and Christians are supposed to solve human. I might, this is a two-parter, I can already see it. Cause in the hand of an expert who knows how to use it, who wouldn't be wheeling it around like I'm doing right now, God places the answer to the problem inside of the thing. I don't have to, how many of you know what this is? Look at that, you passed course number one right there. You got a fly killer, that's what he said, he's a fly killer. You gotta be really good. In the hand of an expert, a hammer is a great tool. In fact, watch this, the Bible says that the Word of God is like a hammer. And using a hammer for the right thing, nailing that nail in. I mean, I'm not good at it and I would bust rocks and trees and everything else with my daddy's hammer and when he found out, because I'd boogered up all the end like that, every time he hit a nail he'd just slide off, slide off. Wasn't good. Everything at our house, everything at our house was fixed with these two instruments right here. If there was a door having a problem, if there was an issue anywhere in the house, a hammer and a screwdriver. Didn't make any difference that the hammer wasn't supposed to be used on the problem. I wish you would. See, because here's the problem. If you don't use the thing for the purpose and assignment for which it has been constructed and built, you abuse the thing. Why are we having such trouble in families? Because God called the man to his first assignment and that is to work. You ain't gonna like me right here, so just puff up and get ready. He called the man to work, not get a job, to work. Find out what your purpose is and get doing what I have called you to do. You don't understand. I'm not just a carpenter's hammer. I'm a finishing. Yeah, but your family is starving to death. Go to work. So what's happening? The women and the children are getting abused because the man is not on his assignment. And the government right now is fully able to fund you to stay at home and watch cartoons. And you wanna know why your wife is all upset? Because when you take a man away from his work, he loses value, identity, and he becomes abusive. Ladies and gentlemen, God put on the inside of you the purpose for which you have been born. And when you use it, there's an anointing in the hands of a skilled carpenter. But when you abuse it, it will tear up the thing for which it was purposefully called. Ladies and gentlemen, how many of you have ever tried to use the screwdriver as a chisel in the house of God? This is to remove not even a, this is a flat head. This is not a Phillips head. It's not a star bit. It's not, it only does what it is purposefully designed to do. It sure makes a great hole maker, don't it? Have a screwdriver around this house. Come on, somebody. My wife just bought a couple of magnets, little VW magnets to put up on the refrigerator there, and that's what she likes, all that. And then one of them's missing. Now when your grandchildren come over, you better put the stuff up, Saul, I'm telling you. We haven't found the third one that she bought. The second one was in the electrical outlet underneath my chair. All of you don't have no grandchildren. Now I'm just gonna tell you right now, grandchildren can get away with that stuff, but them kids, I will beat the fool out of them. I'm just telling you. How many of you understand the hammer has a purpose? And to use it for something other than what it is created for, purposefully created for, it's an abuse. This is a portion of the keys that were handed to me when I took this church over 16 years ago, just a portion, my name. This is supposed to fit everything in and around this place. To this day, I have yet, now, it wasn't my decision, it's my discovery, right? I want y'all to know I'm still discovering some things. Like the key, oh Lord, I gotta stop. Like the key, this key, Joseph only fits the door that it has been keyed to. Now before the dawn of time, God created you to be a key to solve somebody's problem. Now, you don't take blank keys and open anything. It has to be, what a painful process that is. And there may be some places that can be left alone because it's all right, but the majority of this key in order for it to function for its purpose. I'm about to shout right now. Because I know you won't end this place, but unless you hold the key, you can't find your purpose. Pastor, I don't know why I'm going through this cut. I'll tell you what, I didn't understand why I had to bury cut. There's some hills and some valleys in this key right here. But eventually, when it double hushed, when it comes into perfection and it's finished, I always watch these guys. I mean, it's amazing to me now. It's much more scientific, technologically accurate today. Years ago, though, I watched those guys and they put that key in there and they just filed down into it. And then always watch for the George's. They weren't done when they got through cutting. In order for this key to work properly, somewhere around this campus, there's a door waiting on a key. I don't know right now, I couldn't tell you where this fit right now to save my life because y'all understand there's an awful lot of keys. And a lot of people want to carry keys, but they don't want to go through the process of opening the door or finding the door. Come on, somebody. But somewhere on this campus, this key fits, but I always noticed how after they got it all cut in the hills and the valleys and the pain, I mean, look at that one right there. That one's different. Oh, that's right. Your calling, your key is unique to you. They might make duplicates, but there's only one original. Come on, somebody. And whatever you gotta go through in order to discover your assignment, you better let the master keymaker do what he needs to do. Behold, I give you the keys to the kingdom. What's over your bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What's over you loose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven. After he got through cutting all him keys, I'll always watch how they, I just thought it was a polishing technique, but there's some little barbs. That holy ghost is that little steel wool wheel. And he'll go, because if you, have you ever gotten a bad key and stuck it in a door and it, but you see, you're not just any key. God had a thought that I need a door opened in the year of our Lord, 2022. And oh God, now you better hear what I'm about to tell you right now. Hear me. And you are the only one who can open it. Ask if I don't do it, somebody else will. Not their assignment. Not their assignment. I know what my assignment is. I know what my assignment is. I know what I'm supposed to do. I know what I'm gonna be doing. If you ask me what I'm gonna be doing five years from now, he's already cut me now. I'm not saying that I, after a little while, you gotta get a new key cut. You look real good with a lot of keys. Do you know where they go? You got a lot of scripture, but do you know how to use them? Do you know what your assignment is? Do you know what your assignment is? Oh pastor, I know what my assignment is. I'm retired. Well you're abusing that chair you're sitting in because you have been sent. Let me say it like this and I don't have time to get there this morning. Listen to me, you're not finished until you're finished. Don't you sit down on your hands and say, well, somebody else can do it. The moment you say that, you have abandoned. Listen, listen to me. Here is Caleb at 80 years old made a trip through the desert and left some carcasses behind. And when he gets to the edge of the Jordan, he said, Joshua, that mountain right there, 40 years ago, I'm just as strong today as I was then, give me that mountain. If the assignment of God can be accomplished in three years, it's not an assignment of God. Jesus was prepared for those three years, but it was 33 and a half. And look at his assignment, 1 John 3 and 8. For this purpose was the Son of God manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now, when you're doing, I'm done, when you're, come on musicians, when you're doing what God has called you to do, hear me, when he's called, what he's called you to do and the anointing comes upon you to do it, you will do what God's called you to do so well that years after you're off the scene, they'll still be talking about what you did that impacted the lives of your children and your children's children to the third and fourth generation. Pastor, how do you know that? For this purpose was the Son of God manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil. Question, has the devil ever gotten the victory since the day Jesus was crucified? You wanna know why? Because Jesus hung up and said, it's finished. I finished it, I finished my assignment. I came here to die, I didn't come here to heal somebody. I came here to die so that you could live. Jesus finished his assignment. What are you gonna do with yours? Do you even know what your assignment? This is a little different turn that God is taking in this service right now and I'll have to suspend and salt this down for the rest of it for next week. But I don't wanna ever hit bow and never hit close in this building right now because I want you to get in touch with God in yourself. Not what somebody else. I don't need you to feel the pressure of somebody else's eyes looking at you because your mama told you that you had a preacher's head. Now you're gonna be a preacher. No. What is it that God has placed on the inside of you? Well, pastor, I'm too old. He said, Jeremiah, don't say that you're too young and he told Abraham, don't say you're too old. So age makes no difference about your assignment. When Jesus walked on the shores to check out whether or not they were gonna catch any fish, he didn't ask them how old they were. He didn't ask them even how many fish they caught. He just wanted to know, have you caught any fishes? That's all he wants to know. Jesus wants to know today out of everybody here and those of you watching, have you caught any fishes? Are you in your assignment? Or are you trying to live yourself in the life of somebody else? Or maybe what somebody else has said for you to be? I'm telling you, I don't care how old you are or how young you are, God's assignment is not lifting off of you until you have completed it and I will tell you, your assignment is lifelong. Paul said, I've finished my course. I have kept the faith. If you're sitting in this building this morning and you say, Pastor, I don't know what my purpose is. I don't know what my assignment is. If that's you right now, I'm gonna tell you your assignment is found in, hidden in Christ and the only way you can know your assignment is to know him. Today, if you don't know Jesus as your savior, you don't know what your purpose is. You're floundering. Don't waste another second. People are praying all around this auditorium and for people that are online. You say, Pastor, I wanna know what my assignment is. I need to get in relationship with Jesus Christ today. If that's you, lift your hand up right where you are right now across this auditorium. I don't know what my assignment is. Thank you for that honest hand. Thank you for that honest hand. Thank you for that honest hand. I'm waiting on what people get nervous when there's a wait going on but I'm gonna tell you, God's waiting on you because his assignment has already been outlined. He's waiting for you to get in it. Those hands that were lifted just a moment ago, I want you to get ready. Whenever I ask people to stand, I want you to break out from where you are and come and stand at this altar. Today's a day of surrender. Today is a day when God's gonna set you on the track. And I don't care how old or how young you are. Today's the day you want to look into the face of Jesus and say, I have finished what you sent me to do. That's my prayer. Every person in this building who says, Lord, I want your anointing upon the assignment you've given me. I need to start doing what you've called me to do. It's time for me to search the scripture. It's time for me to start getting alone in prayer and hearing your voice. I'm really, really busy but I'm not being effective. The wheels are turning but we're not going anywhere. Today's the day when your assignment becomes real. And every person that has that hunger in your heart to step toward, to stop taking rewards for races you haven't run. Today's the day you start running your own race and finish your own course. And I promise you, God will be pleased with that. Every person in this building that has that hunger and desire, as soon as I ask you to stand, I want you to make your way to this altar and do it just as quickly as you can. We're gonna meet around this altar and we're gonna pray. I want you to get ready to do it. When they start singing, do it right now. Stand all over this building. Would you do it? Do it right now. You're watching all night. Everybody stand, everybody stand. Now if you're hungry for God's assignment in your life I want you to get out and come to this altar. Do it right now. Come on, come on. Say I live for every moment. Lord, I give you all my heart. You need to get in your assignment today. You need to quit floundering and you need to find the place, the location, the time, the call. I'm looking around this altar area, nurses and engineers and you say, well all I do is take care of babies. Yeah, but in real estate and all kinds of things that are around this altar. Electricians and people that serve. And I want you to know your first calling is to God. Did you hear what I said? Before you, you are not what you do. Electrician, no you're not. That's what you do. Who are you? When you can answer that question. I'm a child of God. I've been bought by the blood. I've been chosen by the righteous right hand of God. Now, now whatever it is he wants me to do. I know my assignment pastor. Well one of the indicators, and I'll get into this Lord willing next week, one of the indicators is, do you find joy? This is what I tell high schoolers. What is it that you could do if you could get up without an alarm clock getting you out of the bed that would be so passionate that you would get up without the alarm clock going off? Now I'm just gonna tell you, I was so excited to get here to bring this to you today that long before that alarm clock went off, I was already awake, praying already in a mode. I couldn't wait to get here to give this to you because I know today, some of you that have been off the rails trying to do stuff that you're not supposed to do. Well, how do I know it's not what I'm supposed to do? Cause it's hard to do it and it's a drudgery and all. I'm not talking about going through jobs. There were some things that I didn't want to do but I had to do them. But I was on my way somewhere. Y'all get what I'm talking about? When God develops that gift, he starts pouring his anointing on that gift and it makes it easy to do what you do. I don't have to struggle to do what I do. This is what God's called me to do. I've had plenty of people tell me, you can't, you won't, but their words didn't mean anything. Cause when you know, that you know, that you know, that you know, that you know, that nobody can do it but you, they can fire you from your job but they can't fire you from your work. Cause you fried chicken like crazy, I know that. Pastor, there's fried chicken. Oh, have you tried to fry chicken? I can't fry chicken. I can buy fried chicken, which is what I'm going to do when I live here. And a Pentecostal bird will be sacrificed up for the preacher's supper. No, when you do what you do, I saw your post. God alone knew that many, many years ago that there would be a housing boom in this area and would put you into real estate and make you one of the top sales ladies. That's your anointing girl. What's God calling you to do? What's God putting on your life? You can't find it out five minutes around an altar call. It's a lifelong pursuit. And sometimes things change. I love being a firefighter. Maybe you'll be there, I don't know. I loved it when I was 20. If I had to do it now, they'd have to bring me a ladder to get on the truck. Watch what I'm about to tell you. Your assignment is not just about you, see. You may not understand why you're having to do what you do, but I dropped my nephew in my firefighter boots when he was this high. Worked at Ocean City Rite Fire Department, I did. Three and a half, four years. Loved every minute of it, helping people. He went off to the Air Force, came back firefighter. Now just a few weeks ago, he has far exceeded anything I was doing at the same department as the battalion chief for the Ocean City Rite Fire Department. Why am I telling you that? Cause what you're doing right now, come here son, what you're doing right now may not even be. I don't like it, but that's the anointing upon. Are you hearing me? And I'm just telling you, God's never gonna take his hand off of you. Kultorama kashelabahasaya, lift your hand son. There's an anointing for your future that is already happening right now. Oh, I see the heart. And before you were ever formed in your mother's womb, you've been cut, you've been wounded, but I'm gonna use you. I put my words in your mouth and do not say you're too young for I called you. I feel a release happening all around this auditorium. Lift your hands all over this house. Lift your hands all over this house. I want you to ask the Lord right now, God, what is my assignment? Reveal it to me. Open up my heart, open up my mind, open up my spirit. Come on, open up your mouth and begin to talk to him right now, Lord. What is it that you're wanting me to do? And if I'm on my way there, God, give me the next steps that I'm supposed to take geographically, mentally. If I'm supposed to take a class, I'm not too old to take the class. I'll enroll tomorrow if that's what you want me to do. Whatever that it is, I'm yours, Lord. Come on, somebody. Say it out loud. Take me just like I am. Use me just like I am. If you could see what's going on in the spirit realm, he's peeling mahasheke rabakasura mandyandala bocha. I don't know why I had to go through that. I don't know why. And today you're still asking, stop asking. Pre-ordered you to walk through what you had to walk through because you're gonna be the answer to somebody's problem. Somebody's coming into your life that you're gonna speak the Ramah word to and release their destiny. Name of Jesus. You know how to surrender, don't you? Throw your hands up. Come on, come on. Come on. Come on, I'm asking you to do it because, because with your hands lifted up, your heart's wide open to Him. I surrender. I surrender. I surrender what I wanna do for what you want me to do. I don't know why. I don't know why. I don't know why. But I do know who. And that who is you, you've got it. Let me search. Let me search till I find you. I know that doctors beget doctors many times and lawyers beget lawyers. And I know sometimes that people feel like that preachers beget preachers. But I can tell you after walking through some key cutting years, Taylor's mother and I would have never wished and we never forced or pushed. We just said, Lord, thy will be done. Whatever you wanna do, you can do it. They said, Dad, I feel the call. Let's start some studies. For the ash, every time I ask somebody who says they feel the call, here's some studies, I'll buy your books. And they don't study them, they're not called. If you give them the tools in their hands, that's not what they're supposed to do if they reject it. But if suddenly there's something comes up on the inside of them and they start going after it without even your coaxing, you don't have to hang a chocolate whatever in front you just help her find her way, Mark. She's not supposed to be the key you are, she's supposed to be the key she is. But if you don't do what you're supposed to do and unlock the doors in front of her, she'll never find her door, Mom and Daddy. Quit getting off the rail, Mom and Dad. Quit being up and down and in and out and trying to forge something. Just open your doors and they'll walk behind you and find the purpose of God for their life. I'm not trying, yeah I am. I couldn't be more proud. There's 108 students out there this past Wednesday night. The week prior, some 90 kids out there and he's preaching it just like his old dad with a brand new anointing to a new generation. Sure kids, more than 50% of them don't have Mom and Daddy that come to this church. What's the point? I got a key, he's got a key. Now he's got two behind him, their key's getting cut. It's hard to watch when you gotta walk through some places. Watch your key getting cut, your kid's key's getting cut. But if you'll let the process happen when God gets ready to use them and they put that key, that lifelong key into that lock and turn it, they say this is what I've been called to do. I'm gonna ask you to think about your children and your grandchildren right now. Would you do that? And would you just pray God reveal the secret of their assignment to them? Oh come on, would you pray it out loud? Would you just forget about it? I'm talking about the children you don't have. Somebody said, well pastor, I don't have any children. That's all right, you can be a surrogate to other children that are in this church that are watching your life. Come on, pray out loud. Would you do that? Come on, come on out of that closet and start praying out loud. Well you need a pace assembly that prays out loud. Come on, pray out loud. Lord, reveal yourself to my children and to my children's children. Show them the path, show me how I can help them and get to where you've called them to be. The previous generation to get to their destiny, to their call. And if I fail in my pursuit, they might fall in theirs. The devil is a liar. I thank you that the assignment of God is from generation to generation to generation. Lord, I give you my heart, just the keys. I give you my soul. I give you your whole house. Come on, singers. Come on, congregation. In the next 60 seconds, no sing, just lift those hands. And I want you to thank God for the assignment of God that's upon your life. Would you do it? Open your mouth and thank Him. Lord, I thank You for placing me where You place me. I thank You for calling me where You called me. I'm thanking You for leading me where You're leading me and guiding me where You're guiding me. And I trust You, Lord. You've never failed me. There's been some ups and downs and I've failed You. I've slipped off of my assignment, but today, I'm gonna get back in my assignment. I'm gonna pray like I need to pray because my children need to hear me pray. I'm gonna read the Word like I need to. I'm gonna find... Because Your anointing is resting upon me right now for that God-given assignment. There's nobody else that can do what You've called me to do. Nobody else, nobody else, nobody else. I sense the Spirit of God right here. Somebody that's looking for a job, raise your hand. You needn't a job, lift your hand. I see that hand, hand, hand. Everybody looking for a job? Hold your hand up. Father, in the name of Jesus, for people that have got their hand lifted right now. Not just any job, not just some job, but the job that you've already, before they were ever born, pre-ordered them to be at. Not the one that they're gonna skip out of or just go to and Lord, just lackadaisically be there. But the anointed assignment that you've called them to be at right now, I pray that before this next week closes that you will have opened the door that supplies all of their needs exceedingly abundantly in the mighty name of Jesus. Everybody believes that shall a great big amen. Fall in love with your assignment, my friends. Your first assignment is to win the lost. Do that in the name of Jesus. Shake hands and be friends with somebody around you. And Lord I give. Page young adults that are high school students.