Dr. R.A. Vernon -- Do Your Job!
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00:00 As you can see, it's going to be a different kind of sermon today.
00:02 It's called Get in the Game.
00:04 This is not the message for you to miss.
00:06 It's a vision series about vision for your family, vision for our ministry.
00:10 You've been on the sidelines too long.
00:12 In 2024, we're relaunching our whole ministry, including those of you watching virtually.
00:18 This is the season not to be passive, but to get in the game.
00:22 Let's do it.
00:23 My sermon today, do your job.
00:27 Can we do one of our songs?
00:32 Can we do church discord?
00:34 Let's go.
00:35 No need to worry.
00:36 We born to conquer.
00:44 Yeah.
00:49 So lift your head.
00:50 No time.
00:57 We're on the way.
00:57 We already.
01:03 Where's my victorious people?
01:09 Yet we already won.
01:17 Our victory is assured because we belong to the Lord.
01:25 We need to.
01:25 We won.
01:28 No need to worry.
01:31 Why?
01:32 He has the fight.
01:33 The reigning champion.
01:39 He always saves the day.
01:43 We have over.
01:49 We are the winner.
01:53 Time for.
01:53 We already.
02:05 We already.
02:11 We already.
02:20 Well, victory has a sound.
02:21 Y'all ain't making no noise.
02:30 Why are we all that?
02:33 Put those hands together.
02:40 All right.
02:43 Let's go.
02:46 Let's go.
02:47 I need everybody in the room.
02:51 Let's go.
02:51 Check the score.
02:53 Check the score.
02:55 Why?
03:03 He's undisputed.
03:10 He hasn't lost.
03:11 He hasn't lost.
03:13 Check the score.
03:14 Check the score.
03:16 Overwhelming victory.
03:18 Overwhelming victory.
03:20 Overwhelming victory.
03:22 I got to remind y'all again.
03:24 He hasn't lost.
03:26 He hasn't lost.
03:28 He hasn't lost.
03:30 Overwhelming victory.
03:32 Overwhelming victory.
03:34 Overwhelming victory.
03:36 He hasn't lost.
03:38 He hasn't lost.
03:40 He hasn't lost.
03:42 It's yours. It's yours. It's
03:58 yours. It's yours. It's yours. It's
04:04 mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's
04:08 mine. It's all mine. All mine.
04:12 All mine. Put your hands
04:17 together right now.
04:21 All mine. All mine. All mine.
04:29 Put those hands together.
04:33 So back in the day, my grandma used to say a song.
04:37 Sing a song. It's old school. Can we sing it for y'all?
04:40 It's just a little remix. It says, "Victory is"
04:44 Victory is mine. Victory.
04:48 victory today. Victory today.
04:56 I'm
04:59 victory today.
05:02 victory.
05:05 victory today.
05:08 It's all. It's all. It's all.
05:20 It's all. It's all. It's all.
05:27 It's all. It's all. It's all.
05:35 If you believe we serve the god that lives on high and raise to breathe, let's go.
05:46 With god on our side, we always win. With god on our side, we always win.
05:53 With god on our side, we always win.
05:56 With god on our side, we always win.
05:59 With god on our side, we always win.
06:03 With god on our side, we always win.
06:06 Say I'm a winner. I'm a winner.
06:10 You a winner. You a winner.
06:13 Say I'm a winner. I'm a winner.
06:17 You a winner. You a winner.
06:20 You a winner. You a winner.
06:24 You a winner. You a winner.
06:27 You a winner. I'm a winner.
06:31 So victory has a sound. Make some noise winners.
06:40 Checkpoint! Overwhelming victory! It's yours! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine!
07:06 Say "Oh my!" Oh my! Say "Oh my!" Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!
07:15 Put those hands to the floor!
07:17 So, today's Super Bowl Sunday, and one cannot talk about the Super Bowl without talking about
07:35 the coach who has won more of them than anybody, and that is the great Bill Belichick,
07:40 who many of you may not know, but actually used to coach the Bronx.
07:44 How come he couldn't win when he was here?
07:47 Went to New England, got a cat named Tom Brady, because it does matter who's on your team.
07:53 Yeah, you can be the coldest coach in the world, but if you ain't got no players,
07:58 you're not gonna win but so much. So the jury is out on how good is Bill Belichick,
08:03 or did he win because he had that 6'5" handsome cat named Brady who could sling that rock
08:09 and a good defense. Was it coaching? Was it Brady? Was it the defense? Was it the scheme?
08:15 I would argue, watch this, it was a little bit of all of it.
08:19 My man, my man had six Super Bowls with New England, and then, people don't know this,
08:25 won a couple with the Giants as a defensive coordinator before he got to New England.
08:31 So, eight, nine Super Bowls, he's not with New England anymore,
08:35 and if he doesn't coach this year, didn't know this until this week,
08:38 this will be the first time in over 50 years that he hasn't been on the sidelines during an NFL game.
08:45 In his 70s now, started in his 20s, so football is all he know.
08:50 Can I tell you what he's best known for? There are three words that he's known for
08:54 that everybody that has ever played for him knows.
08:57 He has this one philosophy that I think has won him several Super Bowls
09:01 and keeps him in winning contention. He believes we'll be fine if everybody will do your job.
09:09 Do your job. Do your job. Don't try to do nobody else's job.
09:14 Those of you who play sports, who watch football, particularly on Super Bowl Sunday,
09:18 if you're the running back, run the ball and don't fumble.
09:21 If you're the wide receiver, don't be worried about kicking, just catch the ball.
09:25 Yeah, you're on the offensive line, I need you to pancake somebody.
09:28 Yeah, you're on the defensive line, you're a defensive end, go get that quarterback.
09:32 Yeah, whatever your position is, do your job.
09:36 In a very real sense, the same thing applies to us.
09:40 We cannot win for Christ and win for the kingdom if everybody up in here don't do your job.
09:49 And you got a job to do, and don't think, come on now, the kicker in many cases,
09:54 the field goal kicker, you all know this, this cat is 5'9", 100 and nothing,
09:59 no athletic ability, but many a Super Bowl have been lost because he didn't kick the ball
10:05 through these uprights. And without kicking the ball through these uprights,
10:09 he got one job, kick the ball through these uprights,
10:12 and because he missed the kick, wide right Buffalo Bills.
10:17 They never won the Super Bowl. Everybody in here has a role,
10:21 from the person sitting over there in the team section to the seeds and saints watching me,
10:26 to bros watching me, to brothers and sisters with a PhD,
10:30 to brothers and sisters with a felony out the penitentiary.
10:34 Everybody in here got a job, and if you don't do your job correctly,
10:38 you can cause us to lose the game.
10:42 Yeah, people are dying, people are going to hell, people are catching hell,
10:46 people are in rough relationships, people have mamas who are messy
10:51 and daddies who are demonic and young girls who are confused,
10:55 and when they come in here, I need everybody to do their job.
11:00 Most of all, people who are lost and presently not on their way to heaven.
11:05 We've got to do our job. Okay, so when it talks about, we talk about this idea of doing your job.
11:11 Where do I go? Come on, Bible readers, do I go to Ephesians?
11:13 Ephesians, we know, we see, I give some apostles, I give some pastor teachers,
11:18 I give some prophets, all right, why? For the building of the kingdom, for the edification of the saints.
11:23 Okay, I give some pastors, pastor teachers, I give prophets, apostles.
11:27 You know what those are? Come on, don't leave me, don't leave me.
11:30 You ever watch Instagram and it says, "Wait 'til the end"?
11:33 This one of them sermons, "Wait 'til the end."
11:36 Okay, watch this. So those are what I call, look at me, "Gifts to the church."
11:41 The gifts to the church. I give you, if somebody give you something that's called a gift.
11:46 Pastor, teacher, apostles, prophets, what are those? Evangelists.
11:50 Gifts to the church. Your pastor, he or she, is a gift to you.
11:55 Don't minimize them. Whatever church you go to, don't minimize them.
11:58 That's God's gifts to you. That's God's gift to you.
12:00 My wife and I are God's gift to you, to speak it to you, to love you.
12:04 If we do it correctly, you are better because of us.
12:07 It's a gift. Amen.
12:10 The apostle, the prophet, those are gifts to the church.
12:13 Then in 1 Corinthians 12, look at me, there are, this is your homework, the gifts of the Spirit, right?
12:19 The gifts of the Spirit. To some, the ability to flow in tongues.
12:24 Not grace tongues. Every Christian can speak in tongues.
12:26 Those are grace tongues, but the gift of tongues is a whole 'nother tongue and the interpretation of that tongue.
12:32 To some, I give, watch this, the gift of miracles and healing.
12:37 By the way, we are not a church that believes that the gifts have not continued.
12:42 We are continuous. We believe that the gifts are still flowing.
12:46 Watch this, which means some of you may say, "Pastor, I have the gift of healing."
12:50 And I would tell you, "No, you don't. You have the Holy Spirit."
12:55 And the Holy Spirit can flash healing through you when he wants to.
13:01 So when you hear somebody say, "I have the gift of healing," I got one question.
13:06 How come you don't live in front of the emergency room?
13:10 When the ambulance pull up, you say, "It's cool, y'all. Just give 'em to me. Go home."
13:15 If you had the gift of healing all the time, how'd your grandmother die?
13:20 If you had the gift of healing, would you ever let anybody you love die?
13:24 No, you just heal everybody.
13:27 So God does not give anybody any one kind of spiritual gift, flaneris, or those kinds of giftings all the time.
13:34 But there might be some that he uses you in most of the time.
13:38 My wife always tells me, I got a receiver, where she says, "Baby, you have healing hands."
13:42 She says, "Walk in that." So she'll make me pray for people.
13:45 And she says, "Every time you pray for people or somebody's trying to have a child, lay hands."
13:49 And sometimes she believes that more than I do, and so I let her build my faith in that.
13:53 She says, "God uses you that way." But he doesn't always use me that way,
13:56 because God knows I wouldn't let none of my members die if I could keep 'em all here all the time.
14:00 Are y'all listening to me?
14:02 Okay, so look at me. So there's Ephesians, and then there's 1 Corinthians.
14:06 But then the reason why I pick Romans 12 is because Romans 12 sort of gives the idiosocratic tendencies of the average person.
14:15 In other words, when we get to Romans 12, we better break it down, stay with me.
14:18 You kind of find out the kind of personality you got.
14:22 The best way for God to use you in church.
14:25 Kind of the stuff you just good at.
14:27 The personality that you have by nature that fits better in this group or this team than it does another.
14:34 Romans 12 breaks that down, and we gonna walk through it.
14:37 You got your Bible? You got your phone? Grab your phone.
14:39 Go to Romans 12 on your phone, Bible app, whatever. It's cool in the gang here for the first time.
14:43 Let's start with Romans 12 verse 1. Here's the part many Christians know already.
14:47 "Therefore, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
14:54 This is your spiritual act of worship. Therefore, I urge you," in the Greek.
14:58 It is to urge. I beg. Look at me. I beseech you.
15:01 First of all, it says "therefore." Say "therefore." Say it out loud. "Therefore."
15:05 Everybody knows who goes to church for seven minutes and whenever you see the word "therefore," you have to ask what is it there for to have proper context.
15:12 Which means you have to read the preceding chapter.
15:14 In chapter 11, Paul is talking about how good God has been to you.
15:17 Let me paraphrase Paul. Paul says God has been merciful to you.
15:20 God has been gracious towards you.
15:22 God got you out of stuff that should have killed you.
15:24 God gave you another chance.
15:26 I'll get you in one minute shot when I get to you.
15:28 God preserves your life. God got people out of your life that would have drove you cuckoo.
15:34 God has been gracious to you. God has been wonderful.
15:38 I'm not talking to anybody. God picks you up and turns you around.
15:42 God didn't let you die. God didn't let demons devour you.
15:48 And Paul says in light of all that God has done for you, "therefore."
15:59 How you gonna hook him back up?
16:02 What's your reciprocity?
16:04 How do you render "I'm grateful"?
16:06 How do you say "I'm thankful"?
16:08 He says if you believe everything chapter 11 says, then chapter 12 opens with "therefore."
16:14 If God has done all that for you, here's what you need to do.
16:18 Present your bodies.
16:21 A living sacrifice.
16:25 Is there anybody who's an English major who sees the semantic issue or the oxymoronic tendency of that text?
16:33 I feel like preaching. Wait a minute.
16:35 Living sacrifice.
16:37 That's oxymoronic.
16:39 The Old Testament reader or the reader of that time is thinking sacrifice, which they understand more than you do because we ain't doing no sacrifices on St. Clair.
16:48 That's a Cleveland thing if you don't live in Cleveland. It's called St. Clair. Praise God, amen.
16:52 And superior, huff. We not doing that.
16:54 Well, that's when you would take an animal and kill that animal.
16:58 And the reason why you would kill that animal is because God is a holy God and whenever something sinned, something had to die.
17:06 Romans 6.23, "The wages of sin is what? Death, but the gift of God is what? Eternal life."
17:12 I got new people. Don't go to sleep.
17:14 Everybody's watching me. Thousands of new people, young people.
17:17 Don't assume back in the day everybody went to Sunday school.
17:19 Back in the day, everybody went to Bible study.
17:21 Now, you got people with master's degrees who do not know theology.
17:26 So, you can't say preachers watching me, "You know what David said."
17:29 No, they don't. They're like, "Is David from Bedford, my cousin?"
17:33 No, not that David. David from the Bible, amen.
17:38 Is that true?
17:40 Yeah, so they understand Romans 6.23, "The wages of sin is death."
17:45 So, they would make a sacrifice or sacrifice an animal or kill an animal to say, "God, we love you."
17:53 Christ becomes, look at me, the final sacrifice.
17:57 The Bible says sacrifices begin to stink in the nostrils of God.
18:02 So, God says, "I'm tired of killing all this stuff. Let's do it one time."
18:05 So, God left himself to come to earth in place of himself so he can win you to himself.
18:12 And he did it through himself. That's a bar.
18:14 Let me try that one more time.
18:19 And so, God gave his life. Watch this, everybody.
18:22 So, he says, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice."
18:27 Sacrifice means death, but living is in front of it.
18:32 So, how do I present myself a living death?
18:35 Because I'm dying to self.
18:38 I'm dying to flesh.
18:41 I'm presenting my body.
18:43 My body now belongs to Christ, which means my eyes are his.
18:48 Which means anything that don't look like him, I can't be swiping and looking at.
18:54 My ears are his.
18:56 So, I'm going to have to hang up with you because you're putting stuff in my ear that's jumping in my spirit that's not like God.
19:03 My loins belong to him.
19:05 Come here, brothers.
19:06 So, I can't let my loins lead my logic.
19:10 Thank you, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson.
19:12 I can't let my loins lead my logic and have me with a body count when I know I'm too blessed.
19:19 Oh, y'all not talking to me.
19:22 "Present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord, which is your reasonable service."
19:28 And then verse 2 says, "And do not conform."
19:32 I'm going someplace.
19:34 "And do not conform to this world."
19:38 Did you grow up on King James?
19:39 What did it say?
19:40 "But be," what?
19:41 "Transformed."
19:42 By what?
19:43 The renewing of your mind or that you be able to test and approve what is God's will.
19:48 Which service is this?
19:49 I just got through with nine.
19:50 You look around, doggone it, this demographic.
19:52 Because depending on the demographic, I know what cartoon I can use.
19:59 Y'all pray for me.
20:00 I'm old school.
20:01 Matter of fact, let me show you how young you are.
20:03 Wonder Twin Powers activate.
20:05 Throw your hands up.
20:06 Praise God.
20:07 See, look, nothing, nothing.
20:10 They don't know about the Super Friends.
20:13 Come on, talk to me somebody.
20:15 They don't know about, let's go here, Big Chuck and Hoola Hand.
20:18 Do I have any Cleveland?
20:19 Okay, let me see how far, and Little John.
20:22 Fifty and over.
20:25 You too.
20:29 My kids, Shanae and Dominic, I love you.
20:34 You love me.
20:35 Okay, okay, that's cool, that's cool, that's cool.
20:37 Okay, okay, okay, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it.
20:40 But then there's one, there's one, there's one that's around my age and some of you remember.
20:46 The Transformers.
20:51 And the Transformers were cold-blooded because they would be one thing.
20:59 But then, next slide, they could bust a move on you and be something else.
21:05 Before I met Jesus, I was one way.
21:09 But when he filled me with his Holy Spirit, I wish I had somebody.
21:14 Can three people say, "I've been transformed."
21:16 Go ahead.
21:18 It is, it is, it is to be renovated, renewed, and be renewed by the Spirit of your mind.
21:29 Be renovated, be transformed.
21:32 One popular saying on Instagram, all Christians the last 20 years, but it's true, you don't look like what you've been through.
21:39 Right?
21:40 Everybody say that, but that's true.
21:42 It's amazing when I hear some of y'all's stories and I'm looking at you like you used to be what?
21:47 Really?
21:48 Watch this, I can't even tell.
21:50 You just missed your shout.
21:51 Let me try this again.
21:52 Pastor, you name it, I've been in beds I shouldn't have been in.
21:56 I done been in some relationships I'm not proud of.
21:58 I done smoked some stuff, drank some stuff.
22:01 I was a trip, I was evil.
22:03 I wore wrong clothes, sexual stuff.
22:05 Every time I went out the door and I look at you now and say, "Wait a minute, you what?"
22:09 Somebody ought to just have church with me.
22:13 I gotta tell y'all this, if you've been here 10 years, you've heard me say it, but I'm from Longwood Projects.
22:19 I am Longwood Projects, 3734 Longwood is where I was reared and raised.
22:24 3734 Longwood is where I was reared and raised.
22:27 And I would go past the projects and then one day they decided to tear them down and build some new ones.
22:37 I think it's so funny because if you're from out of town, right, and you're this beautiful young white couple,
22:42 and you're thinking, "We need a great place.
22:46 I mean, something near downtown we can just walk or just whatever, jog and just do some shopping."
22:53 And so you get off the plane, right, and you ride past 37, you'd be like, "Right here.
22:59 Oh my God, baby, you must see this."
23:02 And her husband comes over and it's maybe dark so nobody's outside yet,
23:05 and they go sign the papers and everything, praise God, and they come back Friday night in rain.
23:13 They're like, "What's up? Welcome to the--what's your name?"
23:16 Oh my God, we may have made a mistake here.
23:22 The reason I'm saying that is because one day I ride past Longwood and I had to stop and say,
23:30 "That don't look like where I used to live. Let's tear the church up."
23:34 And God told me to tell you what he's getting ready to do in your life.
23:37 People who used to know you.
23:40 I wish I had 10 people.
23:42 Would you touch five people and say, "A wonderful change." Go ahead.
23:46 That's the wrong person.
23:47 "A wonderful change has come over me. Do I have anybody that's not perfect yet?"
23:53 But go on and slap three people and say, "He changed me." Go ahead.
23:56 "I'm not what I used to be. I don't--I don't."
24:03 Oh, you know what?
24:05 I got an illustration to do, but take 30 seconds and praise him for the change.
24:08 Go ahead.
24:24 Let me read verse 2 from the message, and I want to park here and then I'm going to be done
24:29 because I got to get to what I came for.
24:31 Everybody look at it. Everybody look at it.
24:33 It's on the screens because verse 2 from the message version says,
24:36 "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking."
24:43 I think it was Taffy Dollar or somebody I heard reading this on Instagram,
24:47 and I thought, "Man, that's a powerful version."
24:50 I had never heard anybody else read it.
24:51 Let's put it back up from the beginning.
24:53 "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
24:59 Instead, fix your attention on God.
25:01 You will be changed from the inside out.
25:04 Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.
25:08 Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,
25:15 God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
25:23 That's cold, right?
25:25 Yeah, see, I grew up on King James, but I like the message there because I want to read it one more time.
25:30 Just the first sentence. I love this.
25:32 "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it."
25:36 Can I tell you what the world's trying to do?
25:39 Teenagers, look at Pastor right here.
25:41 Every teenager, outsider, look at me.
25:43 Every outsider, every teenager, every young person, every young adult.
25:47 The world is trying to make you become adjusted.
25:52 The world is trying to make abnormal normal.
25:57 But if you grow up on abnormal, then abnormal is your normal.
26:06 You only can recognize abnormal if you've had access to normal.
26:12 Many people in this room have no idea what a man and a woman married, loving each other, and praying, and making love look like.
26:23 So then you try to start doing something you never saw.
26:27 And you wonder why the first few years are hell, unless you came to a church like this and seen it at least modeled and taught.
26:35 So here you are, a young girl, and your mama would kill somebody for you, but she was fast.
26:41 She liked men too much.
26:43 She had no emotional health.
26:45 She would hurt somebody, you love her to death, but mama just wasn't operating in emotional health.
26:50 And so down the way, nobody had a dad, so we didn't even know that was normal.
26:56 And how many girls can you get? And don't worry about honoring them, just how fast can you sleep with them?
27:02 And so you have no idea, and I promise you tonight, and this is not even my sermon, I promise you, during the Super Bowl,
27:09 and by the way, there's commercials on the Super Bowl, the average commercial costs more than the average person will make in their life.
27:16 Because they understand 50, 60, 100 million people watching.
27:20 I promise you, and when it happens, all of you think about what Pastor said.
27:24 You're going to see at least one commercial where they're going to try to make God's way, which is normal, abnormal.
27:31 Somebody know exactly what I'm saying.
27:34 Let me try it one more time. There's going to be some commercial that's going to come across as normal.
27:38 Because what the enemy is doing to our children, which is why I'm so funny about what my daughter see on her phone,
27:44 which is why even now my 18-year-old, live in my house, I'm still in charge, praise God, I'm still watching phones,
27:50 because if you see something long enough, then you'll think it's normal.
27:55 So if they show you from the time you're one years old, two men, two women, she got three husbands because that's what she like.
28:03 He has two wives because that's what he like.
28:05 When God's way is one man married to his wife and their children, but if the world tells you the other stuff is normal,
28:13 then your whole spirit thinks and you become adjusted.
28:17 And so you ask your kids, which we ask 80% of our teenagers, which is why we had to bust a move and put strength over there.
28:25 We asked them, "How many of you think marriage is just between a man and a woman?"
28:30 And 80% of them didn't raise their hands.
28:34 [crowd cheering]
28:43 Because in their mind, every TV, every phone, their favorite talk show hosts, favorite people in the morning on the news,
28:58 don't tell me the church is not important.
29:01 We are the only person and the only place that says no matter what the world says, God's way is still the...
29:11 Come on, talk to me, somebody.
29:13 Oh, that's worth clapping for.
29:15 You better bring your kids to church.
29:18 Bring your kids to church.
29:22 If they don't pay bills, they must come to church.
29:30 All right, I got...
29:33 That's not even my sermon.
29:34 Here's my sermon.
29:36 Y'all ready for my sermon?
29:37 Here it is.
29:38 So then Paul starts to flow.
29:39 "God in His kindness," look at verses 6 through 8, Romans 12, "God in His kindness gave each of us different gifts."
29:46 If your gift is speaking God's word, make sure what you say agrees with Christian faith.
29:52 If your gift is serving, then devote yourself to serving.
29:55 If it's teaching, devote yourself to teaching.
29:57 If it's encouraging others, devote yourself to giving encouragement.
30:00 If it's sharing, be generous.
30:02 If it's leadership, lead enthusiastically.
30:06 If it's helping people in need, help them cheerfully.
30:09 That's my sermon.
30:10 Here it is.
30:11 Let's unpack those and then let's go watch the Super Bowl.
30:13 Everybody pay attention to the pastor.
30:15 Everybody pay attention to the pastor.
30:17 Let's unpack them.
30:18 Let me tell you what I'm here for.
30:19 No time for playing.
30:20 On Easter Sunday, we start in a brand new church.
30:23 Inside of this church, we are relaunching.
30:25 We're asking God to double the attendance.
30:27 We're asking God to send souls from every place.
30:30 We're connecting in groups and teams, making sure everybody feels like they're part of this family.
30:34 It's not me, it's us.
30:36 Yeah, if this church is gonna last 50, 60, 80 years, we gotta take some of the principles that other cultures do better.
30:42 We got great preaching, they got better systems.
30:45 Oh, we got great preaching, they got better systems that make people feel connected and not just two slow songs, a fast one.
30:51 A charismatic preacher that makes you feel great, see you next Sunday.
30:55 Eventually, you can fall off if you're not a part of it.
30:59 But when you're a part of it, you move from being a renter to an owner.
31:04 When you rent a house, you treat it different than when you own it.
31:06 Can I get a what what up in here?
31:08 Yeah, and so we want you to realize you're a part of this.
31:12 And so, he begins, I like Romans 12, I do better than 1 Corinthians and Ephesians 4 for this kind of teaching.
31:19 Because this deals with your personality.
31:22 This deals with how you built.
31:25 Look at me, this kind of deals with your natural giftings.
31:29 The place you best fit based on how God made you.
31:33 Your idiosocratic tendencies.
31:37 Okay, let's break it down.
31:38 First of all, he says, if your gift is speaking and preaching, it's on the screen.
31:41 Speaking and preaching, that's me, that's me.
31:43 I talk.
31:44 They did a survey, what's your greatest phobia?
31:47 Most people, number one, believe it or not, was public speaking.
31:50 Public speaking, I'd rather do anything, fly on a plane, jump out a plane.
31:54 Don't put me in front of no crowd with no mic.
31:57 Isn't this something when most people hate, I was built to do?
32:01 It's my gift, it's my calling, and therefore it's my gift to you.
32:07 The most important thing that pastor can do on Sunday, look at me, is preach.
32:13 Pastor, that's all you do?
32:15 No, I meet with people all in the back, I go over there and hug and kiss, I still check on stuff.
32:20 But that's really not what I should be concentrating on.
32:23 The best thing I can do is primarily what nobody else can do, and that's lead this church through speaking and preaching on a consistent basis because he called me to be the pastor.
32:34 So my voice carries weight in this house.
32:37 I'm not the best preacher, I'm not the best anything, but for this house, it's my calling.
32:41 If that's on your life to speak and to preach, you'll know it, number one, because you have the kind of charisma, intellect, flow, cadence, enunciation that holds people's attention.
32:59 Do you know how arrogant it is to ask somebody to listen to you talk for 35 minutes?
33:05 That's longer than a TV show.
33:08 These TV shows got commercials.
33:11 You up there, no, listen, brother, you got a good heart, but I ain't trying to listen to you for no 35 minutes.
33:19 And most people who are up there with mics have not been called to do that.
33:23 They just want to do it.
33:25 This is honesty, not arrogance.
33:27 There's a certain way you have to carry yourself, especially in light of the fact, look at me, that everybody in here got a phone and 99% of you not looking at it right now.
33:37 Do you know how hard that is?
33:39 Do you know how hard that is in today's culture for nobody to be looking at their phone?
33:44 Everybody look at their phone all the time.
33:47 Unless they're at the movies, a concert, talk to me somebody, or something that's grabbing their attention.
33:55 So my gift to you, which is why we want to put me in position where I put all my energy in this, is that.
34:03 But maybe that's some of you too, and maybe I can train you because you're a pastor one day, or you can help me on this stage, because talking is what you do.
34:10 You're witty, you're quick, you love the word of God, you can preach and people will get saved, and you can even speak up here if I wasn't here, and everybody will say, "It was good, Pastor. It was good."
34:21 She blessed me. He blessed me.
34:23 Number two, teaching. Say teaching.
34:26 I got to hurry. Say teaching.
34:28 Teaching is, I'm not so much a preacher, but give me something to work from, some sort of manual, and I can sit in front of a class or group, I teach on my job, I train persons.
34:37 I'm not a preacher, but I speak well, and I like helping people to turn the light on cognitively, and I'm great at that.
34:43 I'm a school teacher, Pastor, so I could probably teach here at church if I needed to.
34:46 Give me the material, I'll study it.
34:48 I'm not a preacher, but as far as teaching, what groups do you need me to lead?
34:51 I'll help train these new group leaders.
34:53 I want to train people who join our church.
34:55 I want to be a part of the new membership, a simulation, because I teach well.
34:59 Wow.
35:00 Number three, encouraging.
35:02 Encouraging. I got to tell a story. I got to tell a story.
35:05 Encouraging. My auntie called me this morning. My auntie Tiny. She may be watching.
35:09 Auntie Tiny. She's 70 years old, and she my grandmother's oldest child, and my grandmother's still alive.
35:15 Yeah, so how old you got to be to have a child 70?
35:20 You missed it. I speak over your life.
35:23 That God will let you live to see your child turn 70 years old.
35:28 Come over and see that by faith.
35:32 I'm on my way this morning. I'm in the back of the van, chilling, and the phone rang.
35:37 Now, you got to understand, based on what I do, I can't take everybody's call on Sunday morning.
35:42 Yeah, I can't let nothing get inside this dome that's going to mess up what I got to deliver.
35:46 Yeah, that's bigger.
35:48 I remember, have somebody ever called your phone when you looked at it and you thought, "Uh-uh."
35:53 Devil is alive, not right now.
35:55 Uh-uh. Voicemail. Voicemail. Mm-mm.
35:59 So you got to be special, or my girl or my children or somebody I know well to answer that phone.
36:06 It popped up, "Aunt Tiny. Aunt Tiny."
36:10 I said, "Hey, Auntie." She said, "Hey, nephew. I just want to tell you I love you. Where that baby at?"
36:17 I said, "Auntie, he ain't even six weeks yet, and my daughter loves keeping him in the house until he turns six weeks.
36:23 And when he turns six weeks, got all the shots and stuff, I'm going to tell her we're going to bring him over to see you."
36:27 She said, "How my girl doing?" Talking about Lady Bird. "How my girl doing?"
36:33 I said, "She good. Well, tell her I love her, too."
36:35 She said, "In case I don't see you Wednesday, I know that's your anniversary. Happy anniversary."
36:40 She said, "You know the first three digits of your phone is your anniversary?"
36:45 I'm like, "214." God knows I ain't saying the last four numbers. Praise God. I love all y'all, but we not going to do that.
36:54 We're going to exercise some wisdom since the whole world watching.
36:59 But the first three numbers is 214, which is February 14th. I never knew that.
37:04 Had the same number for 20 years. When you don't have no mistress, you don't have to change your number.
37:08 Y'all just messed up. Praise God.
37:17 I tell people, "My enemies got my number in case they want to reconcile."
37:23 I'm serious. Same number. I'll call them if I'm wrong. Let's reconcile.
37:28 God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. All I'm trying to tell you is, she said, "I love you. Tell my girl hi."
37:33 And just know I'm so proud of you. I am 50-some years old. I was the most about to cry little nephew grown man.
37:43 I called my sister and said, "Rachelle, Aunt Tiny just called me and made my whole day."
37:50 You know how some people when they call you, there's always something wrong?
37:54 Every time she called me and my mother passed and she sounded just like my mama.
37:58 My mom used to say, "I see you on TV handsome." I know I'm not handsome, but my mama would say.
38:04 Y'all not hearing me? Can I tell you what my Aunt Tiny would do if she came here?
38:10 If her health let her, I'd put her someplace encouraging people.
38:15 Some of you, that's you. How in the world you not helping us on the flow team?
38:20 So that when somebody walks in this door or somebody pulls up, I learned from another church,
38:25 we don't just have men in the parking lot, we have women.
38:28 And they're not really helping people park, we just want them to be the first people see when they get out their car.
38:33 Because I don't know who got jumped on by they man.
38:37 I don't know who just saw a text that they boyfriend is not what they thought he was.
38:44 I don't know whose child crushed they soul last night and told them they don't like this opposite gender.
38:50 They like, "It's a lot. I don't know what they going through."
38:55 And so, I don't know what they're going through. So the first person they see, somebody said,
38:59 "People decided they're going to join your church in the first seven minutes."
39:03 Yeah, because just one mean person in the parking lot or some brother who not spirit filled,
39:08 he out there taking shots at cute girls while they're just trying to walk in church.
39:13 But what if God has given you the gift of encouragement?
39:17 That, "Pastor, I don't know why, I just like to make other people smile.
39:22 And I've been through a lot myself, but Pastor, I got a good disposition, I'm effervescent."
39:26 I do. I'm effervescent, I'm happy. Then you could be on one of these ministries that help encourage people.
39:33 Yeah, the gift of encouragement. I wonder, is that somebody?
39:36 And then you'll love this, giving. Giving. I got to hurry up. Say giving.
39:41 Which means you don't even shout, you just write checks.
39:45 And by the way, don't shout, just keep writing checks, praise God.
39:48 I don't want your arm to get tired, I just write.
39:52 Okay, y'all ready for this? Some people have the gift of giving.
39:55 Can I speak over your life and get you excited?
39:57 If God has given you the gift of giving, then He got to give you something to give.
40:02 Receive that by faith.
40:05 I want ten people to say, "Lord, put me on the check writing ministry.
40:10 Give me so much money that my gift is giving.
40:14 Let my spouse and I meet about who we're going to give money to once a week.
40:19 Let us have to have whole family meetings on whose life we're going to change this week with a life-changing check."
40:25 Is there anybody watching me across the world that would believe God to give you that gift?
40:31 The gift of giving means that when you write a check, when you help somebody.
40:36 Okay, I'm gone, let me just hurry up. Then there is helping people in need.
40:39 Helping people in need. Helping people in need.
40:42 I said it at the first service. It was during the pandemic.
40:45 During the pandemic that outreach called me and said, "Pastor, we want to give stuff away."
40:50 I said, "No, they're taking people out in body bags."
40:53 They said, "Everybody stay in the house. I got to keep y'all safe."
40:56 They sent me mass emails and texts and said, "If we're not going to be the church now, when we going to be the church?"
41:02 They said, "Pastor, we grown. We took our shots. We got our mass. People hungry. We can't stop."
41:08 Here we are, the line is down south miles in a pandemic and the people on outreach, they deserve a clap, kept giving out food and kept helping people.
41:18 Y'all better come on. They said, "Let us do what we do."
41:23 Outreach, raise your hand. I love all y'all so much.
41:27 What would happen? And every other Saturday, did you know this?
41:32 Every other Saturday, rain, sleet, or snow, they in the Dr. R.A. Vernon building giving people food.
41:38 Do you know what all of you should do? Make your child come every other Saturday and say, "If you don't get up, you're getting a whooping."
41:47 Explain to another culture what a whooping is if they sit next to you, praise God.
41:51 It's a black thing, but it's real. Praise God. Amen.
41:55 Black History Month, inform them.
41:59 We don't do timeout, we do knockout. Praise God. Amen.
42:04 Just all you know, you said something in the back seat, boom, and you just walk up like, "What day is it?"
42:10 I just said something to mama. I said something to mama. I was just out for a minute. I'm trying to figure out.
42:16 I don't know what I said. I was just on the ground and it's Thursday now. I don't know. Praise God. Amen.
42:27 And then finally say, "Serving." Serving encompasses anything I didn't say.
42:33 If you didn't hear yourself on the list, serving just means I'm going to get anywhere I fit in starting the day.
42:37 I got to serve. Serve the Lord with gladness. Be glad to serve.
42:42 I don't even know what to do. I'm just going to start moving.
42:45 If a car is in neutral, to those of you who aren't a part of any team, if a car is in neutral, you can't turn it.
42:51 I dare you to try to turn a car that's in neutral.
42:53 But if you put it in drive and you figure out you're going the wrong way, you can just turn that baby.
42:59 So once you get moving, God start talking. And once you get moving, God start giving revelation on where you fit.
43:05 And you say, "You know what? I thought I was good here, but God is leading me to be on the flow team.
43:10 God is leading me to help in the parking lot. God is leading me to teach a class because I start moving."
43:14 Can I tell y'all something? I said wait until the end, didn't I?
43:18 Can I tell y'all something? Come on, where my offense at?
43:20 Offense, offense, come on, offense, offense, offense, offense.
43:23 Let me tell y'all something just crazy. Hurry up, offense, offense, offense.
43:25 Run in, come on, clock ticking.
43:27 Offense, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet.
43:29 Offense, you next, you next, offense, you next, you next, you next, you next, you next.
43:32 Go back down there. You next, come on.
43:34 Offense, offense, offense. Y'all ready? Y'all ready? All ready.
43:38 Welcome to Cleveland Brown Stadium, everybody. Praise God, amen.
43:43 Thank you, thank you, upstairs. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
43:45 So I want you to understand, I'm the quarterback right now at the Word Church.
43:48 God is leading me to kind of lead the offense and lead the team, but I need everybody helping.
43:53 And I got the wide receiver. He catch, and that's his job.
43:56 I got people blocking for me. I ain't nobody.
43:58 I need somebody running the ball and running the vision and running with the vision that God has given me.
44:02 And if everybody do their job, it's a real easy flow. We're going to score every time.
44:06 Y'all don't believe me, watch this. 27, 24, hut, hut, hut.
44:12 Touchdown, touchdown. Watch this.
44:18 I don't care what play I run, it don't matter.
44:21 We can run the ball, sometime we got to go faster because stuff happening in Cleveland.
44:25 We got to roll. 27, on two, hut, hut, go.
44:28 Mike, you better, you better, Mike. Praise God.
44:32 Mike, go score, Mike, go score.
44:35 Mike, you killing me, Mike.
44:38 Wait a minute, that was so easy.
44:43 Wait a minute, that's two plays, two touchdowns, easy gravy.
44:48 Did anybody realize what's missing?
44:51 Defense. Why was that so easy?
44:54 All right, come on, demons.
44:58 Come on, devil. Y'all not catching this. Come on, defense.
45:02 Oh, y'all not catching this because it's easy to do ministry when ain't nothing bothering you.
45:08 But what about when your kids break your heart?
45:11 What about when you don't have no money?
45:13 Somebody just told me they not in ministry because they in debt right now.
45:17 Well, heck, that would cancel everybody.
45:20 You still got to fight because there's a real devil.
45:23 We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against—
45:26 See, some of y'all quit our church because you thought church was heaven.
45:33 Yeah, but stuff don't always go like I want it to go.
45:36 I've made a gazillion mistakes as your leader.
45:38 I'm probably the biggest problem in the church.
45:40 God's gonna make me better to make better decisions that position us better.
45:43 And everybody's made mistakes, and so sometimes you think you got it going on, and so it's easy.
45:47 So, person is not praying, person's not faithful, person's not showing up.
45:51 And what was easy, because everybody's not doing their job and blocking in prayer and blocking in giving,
45:56 the enemy can just shoot through the gap.
45:58 27, hut, hut, hut, hut, uh, uh.
46:02 And he fumbled.
46:05 And he fumbled.
46:07 See, if we not careful, we gonna fumble.
46:09 Y'all think y'all are that right?
46:11 Let's go, let's go, let's go.
46:12 And then, and then you think it's easy to pass, huh?
46:14 Because you not praying, half of y'all not helping, and you just come in the church, you think we can do it,
46:19 and the world church just gonna keep winning.
46:21 27, 29, 30.
46:25 World church, season's 8.
46:28 Hut, hut, hut, uh, uh.
46:32 Look at the interception, look at that, look at that, interception.
46:35 Interception.
46:37 The enemy has intercepted division and running the other way with it because we weren't in place.
46:43 So y'all think, OK, you know what y'all think?
46:47 Uh-uh, y'all think, get down.
46:49 Oh, pastor, pastor bulletproof, pastor bulletproof.
46:54 Yeah, pastor bulletproof.
46:56 And he love Lady Vernon, and so long as he can preach, world church OK.
47:01 So the intercessors stop saying my name.
47:04 And the security stop watching me.
47:06 When people call up here every week, we don't tell y'all and say, "I'm coming up there to kill Pastor Vernon."
47:11 Don't get nervous, we just don't tell you that because we're not trying to make you nervous.
47:14 Everybody role matters because who would you try to kill if you was the devil at the word?
47:20 Let's be honest, if you had to kill one person to stop it, let's not talk stuff, who would you go after?
47:25 So you don't think I need intercession?
47:27 You don't think Satan desire to sift me like wheat?
47:30 You don't think I gotta watch my eyes?
47:32 I'm the pastor but I'm still a man.
47:34 I gotta guard my spirit and guard my heart and guard my temper because y'all think, "Oh, Pastor, fire."
47:39 But y'all don't know when y'all don't block.
47:41 Y'all think whatever, 23 years, you'll be fine, Pastor.
47:43 27, 28, hot, hot, hot.
47:46 Oh, oh my God.
47:50 Now look at this.
47:52 Now look, you think that I can't fall.
47:56 But if y'all don't block for me, I can fall too.
48:00 If y'all don't pray for me, if y'all don't help me, I'm gonna get sacked.
48:07 Get back and let's go.
48:08 Come on, clap, move it.
48:09 Two minute drill, two minute drill, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
48:12 Let's go, Omaha, Omaha, Omaha.
48:15 Cleveland, Cleveland.
48:19 Now the defense is swarming, look at them.
48:22 See, now they're trying to confuse me, they're jumping around.
48:25 Oh, oh, I thought we was going one direction, but there's a social justice issue in Cleveland.
48:32 Oh, there's a young lady got killed by somebody, we gotta fight for justice.
48:36 I thought I was going one direction, but people hungry in Cleveland.
48:39 So, but look at the defense swarming, but they don't know, they think I'm stupid, but I'm the leader, so I call the audible.
48:47 26, Omaha, Omaha, change it, change it, they don't see it coming.
48:53 Omaha, y'all ready?
48:54 27, hot, hot, and we still gonna win.
48:59 Ah.
49:04 Wait a minute, line up, line up, two minute drill, let's go, let's go.
49:08 Gotta run some players in, gotta run some players in, gotta run some players in, gotta run some players in.
49:12 Run off, run off, come on forward, we gotta run, run off, run off, come on.
49:15 Oh, do y'all know what else is missing on this stage?
49:19 Women.
49:23 Y'all know what else was missing?
49:29 Y'all know what else was missing?
49:31 Seasoned saints.
49:35 80 years old, 80 years old.
49:41 And he does more visiting the sick for this ministry than anybody else in the church.
49:48 80 years old, take care of his wife, great health, children love him.
49:53 I need old people blocking too.
49:56 Let's get it.
49:58 27, you think you too old to block, get your old butt up.
50:03 Come to church, get in one of these groups.
50:05 I need you, you got the wisdom, seasoned saints, 80 years old.
50:09 And y'all think the women who have kept the black church alive without the, without the women.
50:16 27, hut, hut.
50:30 Would y'all go crazy?
50:32 We win at the Word.
50:34 Get in the game.
50:36 Get in the game.
50:43 It's absolutely berserk in Word Nation.
50:46 Unapologetically, we are relaunching Easter Sunday.
50:49 A church that's 24 years old is starting again.
50:52 We can't do it unless everybody does their job.
50:54 Even those of you who watch me, you're part of the Word Nation.
50:57 We need you to give, pray, serve, be a part of the new groups we're starting.
51:02 Everybody plays a part.
51:05 In 1 Corinthians, Romans 12 tells us that we can't be whole unless you do your job.
51:11 Don't miss this series. It's exciting.
51:14 Get in the game.
51:16 (upbeat music)
51:18 (upbeat music)