"Process and Promotion" By Brother Parrish Lee June 5th,
2016
Good morning, Saints, you may be
seated. I was just so moved and touched
in the worship today, knowing that that God that we talk about, and that Savior
that we sing and converse about, how great and how true He is, every day. And, the truth of the matter is, it says in
John chapter four, “…for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” (John
4:23) He longs to fill up that room that
we have when we praise Him. And he longs
to fill us, and then, as the Lord said, make their abode with us (John 14:23),
to come, and bless, and have that Godly fellowship and communion, that the world
is wondering how they can milk that for some sort of merchandise. A beautiful month, last month, as
we talked about Women of Purpose. Women
of Purpose. And, it was so filled, I
don’t even know where to begin on that, how many wonderful, and different, and
even almost miraculous things have happened.
Our General Pastor, when he heard about that, he said, “I’ going to be
there for that Women’s Day, and Debby said, “If you go, I go. You can’t leave me out of Women’s Day. I know you like going up there and doing your
thing, but, if you go, I go.” And what a
beautiful time it was. What a wonderful
time the entire month was. That just
lends us into the month after that.
Mother’s Day comes before Father’s Day, so Women’s Month comes before
Men’s Month. This is Men’s Month. And, as we pray—last month was a time of
nurturing, and fellowshipping, and learning, and growing in God—we pray also
that this month will be the same. Our
Scripture theme for the month is: 1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye,
stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Our Scripture for this morning is
going to be from the Book of Genesis, and we’re going to read two groups of
Scriptures: Genesis 2:7-8 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he
put the man whom he had formed. Genesis 2:15-18 And the
LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to
keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat: But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said,
It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for
him. If we could just bow our heads for
just a moment. Lord, we come before your
presence yet once again, and, God, we are amazed at how wide the doors are open
to Your presence, and how marvelous your presence is to us, and Your love, and
Your abundance that You’ve given to us, God.
But, yet, Your long-suffering, and Your continuance, and Your nurturing,
and, God, how You sweep us up into Your arms and You carry us when we let You,
Lord, and we thank You for this. We
thank You for the time to worship Your holy name, today, and, we ask, at this
time, as we turn to Your Word, as we open the pages and go through, we ask that
it would do exactly as You have said, that it would not return unto You void,
but that Your Word would do what it’s supposed to do, to nurture us, and to
accomplish that which You sent it, to make us learn, and to make us better, and
closer to You, to make u more of Your servants, so that we might learn more of
Your Words. And, God, at this time, we
yield, and we yield and say, “Have Your way.”
And thus we give unto You, as we pray and claim, in Jesus’ name, and
everyone said amen. Amen. Giving honor to that same God, who
is our Master, our Creator, the Lover of our souls, who is our Shepherd, the
Bishop of our souls, who is out High Tower, our buckler, our sword, our shield,
who is everything, our bridge over troubled waters, our light in darkness, our
answers when we don’t even know the questions, giving honor to Him. And, giving honor to those who have gone
before us, from our founding pastor, he and his family, to our pastor, who has been
here a few times recently, he and his family, and all those who have come to stand
in the gap and make up the hedge, and giving honor to all of you, who present
yourselves before Almighty God, that He might feed You with His knowledge and
wisdom. And this we do pray and claim
and ask, all in Jesus’ name. Amen. As we said, last month was the
service, and we talked about Women of Purpose, Women of Purpose, and what a
strong force that was. Well, today, or
this month, we’re talking about men of purpose.
And the title of today’s message is, “Process and Promotion.” Process and Promotion. Yeah, a little bit of an odd title, but,
hopefully, it will come together fairly quickly as, hopefully, it will make the
sense that it seemed to when we were preparing, and praying for this message. Part 1 God’s Plan So, we saw in the Scriptures, in
the Book of Genesis, chapter two, first it said, in verse seven that God formed
the man of the dust of the ground, and then it said He breathed into his
nostrils, and he became a living soul.
And then it went on, and it talked in verse eight, and it said, “And the
LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he
had formed.” So, we see, first God
formed the man, and then He had a place for the men. He formed him, and then He made a place for
the man, and, so, after that, He put him in there, He put him in the garden,
but, we skip down to verse fifteen, we see the Bible says, He “…took the man,
and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” He put him there, not just in a place, but He
also gave him a position. He put him
there, and then He told him what to do, to dress it, or, to work with it, and
then he told him to keep it, or, to watch and protect that garden. So, He put him in there to work it, and to
watch and protect over it. So, He put
him in a place, He gave him a position in that place, and then He gave him a
purpose. Put him in a place, gave him a
position, and then He gave him purpose.
So, we see that the Lord had, even from the beginning, a plan. Even at the beginning, He had a plan. And, then, it says, in verse sixteen, He gave
him a commandment, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat: But of the tree…” in verse
seventeen, “…of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for
in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” So, He had a plan from the beginning, and, in
this plan, He also had a process, he also had a process. So, He gave him a place, He gave him a
position in that place, He gave him a purpose in that position with the plan
that He had, and then He gave him a process in that place, in his position, in
his purpose. And, then, next, it says in verse
eighteen, “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him an help meet for him.”
So, next, the Lord God granted him a provision in giving him
partnering. He granted him provision in
giving him a partnering partner to work with him. So, He got him a place, position with
purpose, and a plan with a process, and He gave him provision by way of
partnership in this process of promotion, this process of promotion. And this is something that we will find
steadily throughout our lives in God. As
He formed us, He will also give us a place to be, He will give us a position in
that place, and He gives us a purpose and a process with that purpose, in that
place, in that position where He has called us, and then He will also give us
provision and partners, provision and partners. Part 2 Servitude And, for this, we’re going to the
Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:24 And the servant of
the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, “And the servant of the Lord,” the
Bible says, “must not strive;” or, must not be contentious, must not be looking
for a fight, must not be quick to frustration, and must not be quick running
into conflicts, be quick getting into controversy, “the servant of the Lord
must not strive; but be gentle unto all men,” as much as lieth within you, the
Bible goes on to say (Romans 12:18), as much as lieth within you, “And the
servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient,” Apt to teach and patient. So, if anyone is to be a servant of the Lord,
then, what is important about being a servant is your service, or, our
service. If we are a servant, then what
stands out about us is our service unto the Lord, and our service determines
what type of servant we are. It
determines what type of servant we are.
And, down through the ages, God has given us examples of His servants in
this whole process and promotion. He
gave us Adam, and Adam was called for a purpose, and that purpose was, of
course, to start humanity, start mankind, start society. And, in that purpose, He also gave him a
partner, and we recognize that partner as Eve.
So, He gave him a purpose, and He gave him a partner. And we go on, there’s many; there’s Abraham. He made Abraham; He gave him a place, He gave
him a position, and He called him for a purpose. And, we recognize that Abraham was the Father
of Faith. They call him the Father of
Faith. And, Abraham, as it goes on, we
recognize that, from him, several things came about. In fact, when, years ago, I had a chance to
visit a place down in Chicago, and we were in a van. It was Brother Kirk and myself and a few
others. And, some were Muslims in the
van, and some were Christians, and we went to a place that had Jewish people
there. And, one of the Jewish people
said, “Hey, well, you know, standing here in this room, we all come from the
same one. We all come from,” and she
said, “Father Abraham.” And I thought it
was really amazing that everybody in that room, whichever faith they were, were
going to claim father Abraham, the Father of Faith, as he was called. And, even after Abraham, there came
others. There came Moses, and we
recognize Moses; He was called for a purpose.
He was called to be a testator, a testator. And, from that, we have the testament of the
test of fire, the testament of the test of fire. The one who brought testimony. And, after Moses, of course, there was the
one called to continue. That was Joshua,
and he was called to be a deliverer. So,
Moses was called to bring them out of bondage, but he was not called to bring
them into the Promised Land; that was Joshua’s calling. So, He calls them, and He gives them
position, puts them in a place, gives them a purpose, and the He gives them a
process. And, so, as Joshua took the
people into the Promised Land, there was others that was called. There was Elijah who was called; he was
called to be a prophet. And, his job was
called, as he prophesied and did other things, his was the example of showing
us what God is going to do with those who are faithful. And he was caught up into the Heavens; they
saw him go up. And, there was his
servant who was with him, that was Elisha, who was also called for a
purpose. Now, as he was called for a
purpose, we see was called to continue God’s legacy, and, even his testimony
was so strong that, even after he
died, he revived somebody from being dead themselves. Quite a feat.
Quite a feat. Now, whenever one
is called, true, now, whenever one is called, they’re generally called through
conflict. They are called through some
situation, they are called because of a need.
We’re going to talk about Ananias, how Ananias was called, and he was
called in a time to minister to Saul, and he was called at a time when nobody
else wanted to do the job that he was called to do. He was called to minister and mentor one who
was threatening and persecuting the church.
And we can all identify with people that God might call us to talk to or
work with that just rub us the wrong way.
Maybe there’s a little something, maybe there’s a lot of something in
between us and the person that God calls us to minister to. Whatever it might be, the calling of God
still stays there, because there is a process and a promotion. Now, Ananias, we don’t recognize Ananias as
one of the great, huge men of God in the Bible who did this and did that, and
they have his name on plaques, and they talk about him every Sunday, but that
wasn’t his calling to be that. Hi
calling was to mentor and minister to one who was going to take the message
further than Ananias was called to do.
Because he was faithful, we have Apostle Paul, and because we have
Apostle Paul, we have, all over the world, Christian faith, all over the
world. This is what happens when people
in their process and in their promotion.
And, in contrast, one of the things that we see is God doesn’t call men
to be alone. He doesn’t call us to hide
ourselves away, and just secure ourselves, and say, “I’m going to rest in this
fort.” And that goes against, that goes
against, generally, it goes against what men feel like doing. He didn’t call us to be—in our callings—he
didn’t call us to be over people, but he called us to be with people, he called us to be with people. And, in this contrast, because
many men say, “I need some alone time. I
need some me time, man time.” You see
that all over, and you see that in olden movies, where they had to have a
den. It was a man’s den, and he’d have
books—whatever he had, he had them in there.
And that was his place, and, if anybody went to his place, they had to
knock on his door, and it was up to him to let them in. But, that, you don’t see “dens” so much
anymore; you see something a little bit different. You see “man caves.” Ma caves usually have a sign, and usually
they have a warning label, and they feel intruded when somebody comes in there
and they weren’t invited. “I didn’t give
you permission; don’t you come in my space.”
It kind of goes against the grain, and, even, some men have called their
man cave a “Fortress of Solitude.” “It
is my Fortress of when—not when I’m lonely, but when I want to be alone. That’s my place, a Fortress of
Solitude.” Now, in that feeling that men
have, that can be used both for bad and good.
It can be used for good, if, say, we do something, if we bring God in
it, it was used for good. You see things
like, a sabbatical, for example. A time
that, “I’m going to get my thoughts, and my mind, and my heart, and everything
adjusted right, and I need to be alone to do that as I spend me some time with
God.” And, so, we see that, even those
things, if we invite God into those things, they can be for our good. Part 3 The Power of One This is not in contradiction to
man is not supposed to be alone. This is
enhancing what God has called us to do.
Now, when God calls us, so often, we feel like, “Hey, how can I do
this? I can’t do that. You know what? If God called me to do that, look at all the
things I need. I need this, I need hat;
I don’t have this, I don’t have that.
And, plus, I don’t know why You’re calling me to do that; I don’t feel
like doing that. I don’t have the talent to do that. I’ve seen other people do something like
that; they failed. They didn’t do a good
job. You know, if I was going to do it,
I’d need all this other stuff to help.” But,
if God called you for it, then God knows what you have. And, I God knows what you have, as it says in
the Book of Second Corinthians, then everything is incumbent upon us. Everything is up to us when God calls us. The Scripture says: 2 Corinthians 8:12 For if there
be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not
according to [what he doesn’t have] that
he hath not. In other words, if God called you,
you’ve got everything you need. If you
see a need, and God has called you, then you have the ability to pray for it,
because God has put that in you. If God
called you, and you see that you need some help, you have the ability to work
with it. Seek God; get the wisdom, go
out and find the help. If God calls you,
and you lack resources, God will show you how to get the resources. The first thing that has to be there is, we
have to have our minds made up! We have
to have our minds made up, we’re going to do it for God! God’s going to get the glory! God’s going to get the magnificence! God’s going to get all the credit! But, if God calls you, He doesn’t leave you
alone; He doesn’t leave you wanting.
He’ll show you. He’ll make you
seek for it, and He will give it to you, if He calls you, first, if our minds
are made up, then it is accepted according to whatever it is we have. The power of one. Now, if we could go on down to: Joshua 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for
the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. One man of you shall chase a
thousand! One man. You could multiply by a hundred, and that’s a
hundred thousand people he could take care of.
That little, small group. That
meant that this crowd right here, this group right here—I don’t know how many
there is; let’s say there’s a hundred—if there’s a hundred people here, we
could take care of a hundred thousand people.
Whew! What an army! Yeah, all you young people, too. Yeah, you and you, Angelo, big hulk thing,
you are. Yeah. A thousand people! A thousand, it says one of you shall chase a
thousand. Now, if we talk about the
power of one, we have to realize that that one is powerful when that one is in
tune with God, when that one is in tune with God. When that one is in tune with God,
absolutely. Absolutely, he can take care
of a thousand. One doctor can help and
minister to a thousand. One teacher can
teach a thousand. One mechanic. One plumber.
One singer. One musician. When we’re in tune with God, we can edify
thousands. When we’re in tune with God,
we can edify thousands. One God-fearing
man, one God-fearing woman can chase away a thousand disappointments, can chase
away a thousand fears, can chase away a thousand heart-aches, a thousand
problems, can chase a thousand tears when we are in tune with God. But it has to be, again, it has to
be about God’s purpose, and not our own purpose. We have the example of Balaam, in Numbers
chapter twenty-two, he was a prophet, and, because he was a prophet, he got to
thinking that, “I’m a prophet, so, I can make up my own mind to do this and do
that; after all, I got the power.” But
it wasn’t God’s will that he brought to them.
And one that’s more known is the prophet Jonah, whom had the Spirit of
God, and was told, and had a walk with God, and, yet, because he had that walk
with God, felt like, “Hey, I’m a man of God.
I can decide to do whatever it is I want to do.” And, because he did that, the Scripture says
that he said, he found himself in the belly of Hell, because he left God’s
purpose and went about to do his purpose. Now, as we talk about the power of
one, it is also important that we realize, it’s not just anyone, it’s the one
who God calls after that purpose. So, we
have Elijah, who was a great man of God; he got taken up into the sky, but, at
that time, there was, the land was populated with prophets and sons of
prophets. So, if the land was populated
with prophets and sons of prophets, why was Elisha the only one following
Elijah? And that’s really simple. It’s because when Elijah was taken up, his
mantle fell to the ground, and there was only one mantle. There was only one, so, there was one called
to wear one mantle to take that part of that Gospel forward. And, we have the Apostles. Mighty men of God. They healed.
They cast out demons. They cast
out devils, and they did other, various things, and they came back to the
Lord—they all followed the Lord—and they said, “Even the devils are subject to
us in Thy name.” They were all mighty
men of God, but even here, there was only one out of the twelve that was called
to have the keys of the Kingdom. There
was one who was called. So, if Thomas
would have stepped up, and said, “Hey, Lord, I know You want to give them to Peter,
but, you know, we all kind of doing the same thing, here. You know, where’s my keys? You know?
I should have that same kind of power.”
But that wasn’t his calling. That
wasn’t John’s calling. That wasn’t
Andrew or Bartholomew’s calling. It was
Peter’s calling. So, we see that, when
that one is in tune with God, they will, we will, we can, we do, chase a
thousand. Part 4 Completing His Purpose, Completing
His Process For this, we’re going to go to
Second Timothy. Watch ye, stand fast in
the faith. Quit ye like men. Be strong! 2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing. “I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith…” Apostle Paul, near the end of his service
said this. “I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith…” Near the end of his life he said this. And many of us would say, “Wow, you know,
what a perfect life Apostle Paul lived,” and, reading this Scripture, every
time, I want to be able to say that when I get to that point, “I have fought a
good fight, I have stayed the course, I have kept the faith.” I realize I’m not there yet. I see, you know, so often we see, “Wow, we
tend to fall short.” You know, it’s
like, “Lord, I’d really like to say that, but, I’ve fought a fight; sometimes
it was good, and, sometimes, I kind of got whipped on a little bit. And, I stayed on the course, but, sometimes,
I got the course a little wrong.” I
don’t know—I know we have some military, here, but I don’t know if we have any
quartermasters, here. I understand that
quartermasters are real important, because, a couple of degrees can put you on
a different island, or even a different continent. That’s what I’m saying; is that right? Any quartermasters? I’ll take your word for it. But that’s what I’m told: they plot a course,
if they’re just a little bit off, instead of Asia, they could wind up in
Africa. That’s a big difference, right
there. But, he said, “I have finished my
course,” and then, he goes on to say, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day…” And, you know that, if you’ve
done those things, if you’ve fought a good fight, kept the course, and, if
you’ve finished—if you’ve kept the faith and finished your course, then you can
say, “Yeah, I’ll have that crown, too,” but, you know, you look at your
mistakes, and, yeah, I’m specifically talking to the men, we look at our
mistakes, and we say, “Yeah, I see that scripture, that sounds real good, but,
I can’t say that I get a star for that one.” Well, the issue isn’t that we did it
perfectly, the issue is that we did it with God. And, though we are imperfect, isn’t it
wonderful to know that we serve the perfect One? Though we fall and stumble, all the time,
isn’t it wonderful to know that His arms aren’t too short, that He can’t save
us? And His heart isn’t too small that
He can’t reach us with His love. And His
Word is not so unpowerful that it can’t teach us, and come to us and meet us
where we are, every single situation we find ourselves in, God is able to give
us what we need. He’s able to restore
us, to repair the breaches. He’s able to
build a bridge out of where we are. He’s
able to provide a light into the darkness.
Anybody ever been in a situation, they didn’t know how things was going
to come out, work out, and, yet, God came through, and you just had to turn
around and say, “Ain’t nobody but God is able to do that!” That wonderful God, that awesome God, in the
midst of our mistakes, we find that God is true, powerful, and real. Amen. Now, Apostle Paul, when he says
this, he says, “I have fought a good fight, kept the faith, continued His
course…” There is a reason why he put that
in black-and-white. Because, the rest of
that scripture goes on, after he says, “…which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day: and hence
forth as laid out for me a crown of life…” he says, “…not me only, all them
that love his appearing.” Not to me
only, but to al them that love His appearing.
All them that love Him, and look forward to Him coming. Aw, man, a crown of righteousness! And, you know, Apostle Peter, in First Peter,
he says it a little differently. Apostle
Peter says: 1 Peter 5:4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye
shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. A crown of righteousness, a crown
of glory, God’s going to give it to you, and it will never go away. A crown!
A crown! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Now, I’m about to wrap up, here. Now, men, I do need to tell you something
else: some of us are going to have a testimony.
Some of us are going to have a testimony. Now, some of us are going to have a testimony like
Joseph. And, if you know the story of
Joseph, Joseph had to go through some temptation, Potiphar’s wife and the whole
deal, day by day. Some of us are going
to be tempted, men, and that’s what we have to go through to get a
testimony. Some of us are going to go
through temptation, and be falsely accused, and, somehow, the situation is
going to put us in lock-up. It’s going
to lock us up. We’re going to have to
suffer because of our testimony. Some of
us are going to have a testimony like Jacob, where even people in our family
don’t get along with us. Where we find
ourselves wrestling an angel, or wrestling with the spirit of calling in God,
and finding ourselves changed; walk differently, and everybody thinks it’s a
weakness when it’s actually a strength. Some
of us are going to have a testimony like Job, where we’re going to have to
carry the testament, the testimony, the testimony in our body, where people
will have to see it. Some of us are
going to have that testimony, where even our friends think that we can’t get it
right. And even maybe our wives, or, if
the situation were reversed, a Joba or Jobeth, maybe even our husbands don't
understand that this thing is of the Lord.
Yeah, some of us are going to have a testimony. Some of us are going—the Bible talks
about bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus—some of us are
going to have a testimony like Peter, where we’re always getting in trouble around
church people. Seems like the Lord keeps
jacking us up, telling us how wrong we are, and, yet, called to lead. Some of us are going to have a testimony of Apostle
Paul, where we have to struggle with pride, pride. Thinking we have a certain amount of
knowledge, and then, finding that God has to humble us, for us to do His
will. Given thorns and coming to God,
and saying, “God, I’ve been coming to You about this for a long time, and God
says, “Yeah, I know. My grace is
sufficient. Keep coming to Me about it.
Come to Me. I’ll deliver you
today, and, tomorrow, come to Me again.
You’re going to have that thorn that you keep coming to Me about.” Some of us are going to have that testimony. Because, you see, this is all part of having
a testimony. All part of us having—whatever
you have to go—you can’t have a testimony without having something to testify
about. You’ve got to go through
something to have a testimony; otherwise, you’re just a nice guy. So, when you start to go through something,
remember, “It is of the Lord that I’m tempted.
It is of the Lord that I’m aching.
It is something that I’m going to get a testimony about. God has His will in this to make me stronger. Amen. And our last part: Part 5 In Everything Give Thanks 1 Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing
give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. “In every thing give thanks: for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” In every thing give thanks: this is the will of God concerning you. In every thing give thanks; in the good times
give thanks, I the bad times, give thanks. When I’m feeling good, give thanks. When I’m feeling terrible, give thanks. When I’m full, give thanks. When I’m hungry, give thanks. When it’s morning-time, give thanks. When it’s night-time, give thanks. When I’ve got enough money, give thanks. When I’m broke, give thanks. When there’s gas in the car, give thanks. When I don’t know how I’m going to make it to
work, give thanks. When my boss is in a
good mood, give thanks. When he’s
breathing down my neck, give thanks. In
everything… When the family’s great,
give thanks. When the family is in
turmoil, when people seem to be crazy, give thanks. When you understand, give thanks. When you don’t understand, give thanks. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
And by this, we will know that we are doing the will of God; in
everything give thanks. Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
|
|
|
|
