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00:00 Oh, my team is so creative. Oh, that's all net. Listen, we're
00:06 getting in the game today as you can see our team man has been
00:08 creative as they can be. It's been amazing man. Listen, need
00:13 all of you to watch today's sermon. Get in the game. This
00:17 series has been crazy. The creativity. I mean, look at
00:20 this. This is I just listen. We need everybody to get in the
00:24 game at your local church. Are you a part of the vision? Are
00:27 you a part of the dream team? This is not like this is real
00:31 for me. I need you to watch those of you that are virtual
00:34 members. Those who've been watching for a while. We're
00:36 relaunching our whole church on Easter Sunday. I'm not
00:38 apologizing. It's time for you to get in the game.
00:45 I feel something about to break out in here. I'm looking around
00:51 as survivors in here. Where are my survivors at? Don't even
00:56 know how you're still alive but for the goodness of God over my
01:01 life and I didn't come to church to be entertained. I
01:05 came to throw up both of my hands and say, lord, thank you
01:08 for keeping me and saving me and redeeming me. Take 20
01:15 seconds and praise him for one more time.
01:22 Oh.
01:25 Oh.
01:28 Oh.
01:31 Oh.
01:34 Oh.
01:37 Whoa.
01:55 Somebody look at that camera right quick. Somebody look at
02:01 it. Look at right now. Wave at it. Wave at it. Wave at it. We
02:04 praising God up in here. This Cleveland, Ohio.
02:11 Oh.
02:14 To God be the glory. For all that he has done. Lord, just
02:40 cover this whole service today. Lord, you told me to pray over
02:44 the people today and so I pray over them now that whoever
02:48 walked in with anything, burdens are being lifted as I
02:51 speak. Yokes are being broken as I speak. Weights are being
02:54 lifted as I speak. Lord, have your way and then somebody don't
03:00 come to church all the time. This is a little different for
03:04 them and so let them feel comfortable. Let them know
03:07 they're in the midst of a bunch of messed up people who God
03:12 gave another chance and that whatever they walked in with,
03:16 we're no better than them. We have been in some wrong beds.
03:21 We have smoked some wrong stuff. Been in some bad places.
03:25 Done some bad things but the grace of God over our lives.
03:31 And so, Lord, we pray that before they leave, they will
03:36 receive that same Jesus that saved us and they don't have to
03:40 feel uncomfortable. This the right church and they came on
03:44 the right Sunday. They don't have to be dressed up. It's not
03:49 about clothes. It's about souls at the word. And so help them
03:53 to know and then, Lord, I gotta, I gotta another prayer.
03:55 Somebody saved already but it's been a rough couple months. And
04:00 the devil's trying to mess with their faith. But I speak,
04:04 receive this, the joy of the Lord. Come on, receive this, the
04:09 joy of the Lord. Be over this place. Holy Spirit, release joy
04:14 all over the country. All in places that are watching me
04:18 across the world. Have your way, Lord and so we come against any
04:22 foul spirit. We curse every foul spirit. Oh, we curse every foul
04:29 spirit. That would hinder the word today. Let it fall on good
04:37 ground. Let let saints be encouraged and let sinners get
04:43 saved. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Now, go on and hug
04:47 somebody. Say, I needed that. I'm good now. I'm good. I'm
04:50 good. I'm good. I receive that fast. I'm good now. I'm good.
04:55 I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. What's up, everybody? Who's
04:59 glad to be alive today? Amen. Wanna welcome all of you. The
05:07 first service was tremendous to our Word Everywhere campus.
05:11 Watching us everywhere. What's up to you? Thousands and
05:15 thousands and thousands watch us and there's so many better
05:18 preachers you could be listening to and so I'm humbled. I really
05:20 am. That's not false humility. That's true humility. I'm
05:23 thinking of ten preachers now that can preach me under a
05:26 table and you're watching me and so thank you for picking
05:30 the Word Nation and to kick it with us. We're grateful to have
05:33 you. Let's do this. Okay, if you have your phones, let's
05:36 grab your phone, put it on vibrate. Those of you who use
05:39 Bible still whatever or whatever you're you're using.
05:43 Let's locate. We used to say turn back in the day. Isn't
05:46 that something? Yeah, let's locate. Acts. Acts two. Whether
05:51 you're turning or pushing. Let's locate acts two. Acts two
05:56 and I wanna wanna thank God for all of you again. Shameless
05:59 plug. We are we are not a speedboat. We are cruise ship
06:03 and so we are turning our culture in terms of connection.
06:07 We don't just want the superstar preacher and the hot
06:09 praise team. We want you connected being a part of this.
06:13 This is your family. We want you starting a group in your
06:15 house at the coffee shop. If you hear us keep saying
06:18 something, we're inculcating it into our culture and we're not
06:22 apologizing. This is gonna be bigger than me. I'll be dead
06:24 soon. Don't get nervous. Twenty, thirty years are still
06:27 soon. I wanna make sure our church goes on forever. Amen.
06:31 So, most of the moves you see me making this second half, I'm
06:34 setting up stuff for your children. Yeah, most churches,
06:36 watch this, are hot, then they not. That's not gonna be us.
06:41 Let me just prophesy. I speak a hundred years of killing it
06:44 over the word nation. That's your grandchild who's five
06:48 years old will get married at this church and this will be
06:52 the place that watch this grandma and granddaughter like
06:56 to come to. That's hard to do but it's working. Look around.
06:59 Look around at this intergenerational hook up. God
07:02 has given us. This is not by mistake. This is intentional.
07:05 Speaking of that, let's tag this text. Acts two verse
07:09 forty-three, one verse just to tag it. Just to tag it. A
07:13 feeling of fear came over everyone. As many amazing
07:19 things and miraculous signs happen through the apostles. A
07:24 feeling of fear came over everyone. As many amazing things
07:30 and miraculous signs. Do me a favor. Uh high five seven
07:34 people and tell them this is a scary church. Go ahead. Tell
07:36 them this is. This is a scary church. That's what I wanna
07:40 talk about. A scary church. Part three of this vision
07:46 series titled Get in the Game. Go ahead and be seated. Make
07:50 yourselves comfortable. Make yourselves comfortable. Alright
07:52 so I'm tripping. To get a master's degree, you should
07:57 master something. To get a doctor degree, you should be an
08:01 expert in something. My my particular doctor degree as
08:06 most of you know that I've been here 10 minutes is in church
08:08 growth. My dissertation, I charted into a book that has
08:12 moved all across the world. Pastors sit it right next to
08:15 their Bibles. It's called Size Does Matter. It's my
08:20 dissertation. So, church growth is important to me and people
08:23 fly here. They do every year by the thousands to see how we're
08:27 doing such decent ministry and what is called a cold city
08:32 called Cleveland but you know God lives in Cleveland, don't
08:35 y'all? Praise God. Amen. Amen. People don't know where he
08:38 lived. He lived in Cleveland. Amen. Can I tell you what the
08:40 first church was? It was mega. Yeah, it was mega. Can I tell
08:45 you what mega means? That's all it means. It it means very
08:49 large, huge, mega, mega, mega. This is a mega church. During
08:53 my dissertation, I had to talk about the impact of the mega
08:56 church of the mega church on Christendom and because in the
08:58 90s, for the first time ever, some of you are old enough to
09:01 know this. It was in the 90s but for the first time ever,
09:05 young people start going to a different church than their
09:08 mama. All the way from slavery, whatever the family church was,
09:12 that's where everybody went. Reverend Buckwheat couldn't
09:15 preach a lick. Y'all remember Reverend Buckwheat? Reverend
09:18 Buckwheat couldn't talk just up there. And Jesus.
09:22 Make a way. And any good. Say yeah. Yeah.
09:33 Oh lord. I do it too. I do it.
09:37 And we all be sleeping in the back. And once he start saying,
09:43 oh lord, you said, my time to go now. Praise god. Amen. He he
09:47 coming on through. But it didn't matter if the pastor
09:50 could preach. That was the family church. You've heard me
09:53 teach this. It's where I did my hatching, matching, and
09:56 dispatching. Hatching, my baby got blessed there. Matching,
10:01 it's where I met and got married. Dispatching, where we
10:04 buried grandma. Everything at the family church. But for the
10:07 first time in the 90s, churches start popping up that were doing
10:11 ministry that young people could relate to and they start saying,
10:14 mama, I'll see you on Thanksgiving but I'm going to
10:16 my church. I'm going to my church. What happened in church?
10:21 Say mega. And these mega church start popping up. I want to
10:25 speak over your life because many of you may not receive
10:28 this. You may not go to a mega church, those that are watching
10:31 me. But I speak over your life a mega mindset. Yeah, you're not
10:38 going to sit under me and keep thinking small. And I'm not so
10:43 provincial that I think the only kind of large is money
10:47 large. Because there really are people, don't get mad at them,
10:51 that's not looking for a bunch of money. I'm not asking you to
10:54 go after money and wealth if that's not your calling. But
10:57 still think large. Yeah, matter of fact, I keep telling you,
11:01 you don't have to have nothing to be my friend, but you do have
11:04 to want something. I'm at a place in my life, and if you
11:08 keep hanging around, I do mean this, all small thinking people,
11:12 you have no idea that you become small without knowing it. If all
11:16 you hung around with small thinking people, I want to
11:19 stretch your mind. J-Bass said, enlarge my coats. He's saying,
11:24 broaden my scope. He's saying, God, make me larger. He's saying
11:28 I feel restricted and confined. If you grew up around all broke
11:33 people who waited on the first set of month and went to the
11:35 same restaurant and watched the same TV shows, you'll find
11:38 yourself 30 years old going in circles. But the devil is a lie.
11:42 I come to call you out of that mindset. I come to call you
11:47 educated, out of debt, dating somebody decent, mega mindset.
11:53 [APPLAUSE]
11:57 Yeah, you ready for this? If you're married or want to be
12:00 married, I speak over your life, a mega marriage.
12:02 [APPLAUSE]
12:04 Uh-huh, did nobody say nothing? Yeah, I said a mega marriage.
12:08 Yeah, I'm too old to play. 26 years, we celebrated last
12:13 Wednesday, everybody. 26 years. And I took her someplace nice
12:20 and took her to this nice hotel and told her there's nobody in
12:24 the world I want to be in the room with four straight days
12:28 without coming out. I said, including your kids. I don't
12:32 have a friend I like that much. I don't have children. I don't
12:35 have nobody I want to stay in the exact same room with for
12:39 four straight days. And it hit us, and I speak this over your
12:42 life, even single people, mega marriage.
12:46 OK, y'all missed that. I heard somebody say something. I'm just
12:51 going to disagree. I said it from this stage, so don't pull
12:54 the tape. If you pull the tape, you're going to think I'm
12:56 lying. So let me admit, I've said it from here, and I was
12:58 wrong. I said marriage is not supposed to make you happy. It's
13:02 supposed to make you holy. I said that because that's what I
13:05 heard somebody else say. And then it hit me, where is that
13:08 in the Bible? It's this many people at every church I go to,
13:12 honestly, and more, for this single thing I'm doing. I'm out
13:16 this Friday, Friday after that, DC, Phoenix, LA, Nassau,
13:20 Bahamas, Freeport, Bahamas. It's international now. Singles
13:23 all over the world want me to come. And as I'm coming to
13:25 places different Friday, every Friday, I promise it looks like
13:28 this, and way more some places. And I'm telling you that I told
13:31 them, and I'll let it out. And by the way, put this down on
13:34 your phone, One Night Stand is coming home the Friday after
13:37 Easter, everybody. Come on, come on, yeah. Amen. So all
13:42 singles, the Friday after Easter, One Night Stand is
13:45 coming home. But I do want y'all to know this for singles,
13:48 I'm saying, I'll let this out now, life should be hard, not
13:52 my wife. You got to show me in the Bible where my wife's
13:57 supposed to be my hardest thing. Can you imagine coming
14:00 home thinking, "I hope she ain't there." Can you imagine
14:06 coming home, "I hope he don't try to touch me. Yeah, I hope
14:10 she ain't tripping." Get your head around how small that is.
14:15 Life gonna present you with challenges. Kids gonna break
14:18 your heart. Family may trip on you. People gonna lie on you.
14:22 Jobs may trip. You telling me the person I'm married to should
14:25 hurt me too? And for those of you that have had challenges,
14:29 we're not no small church. Sometimes there's been
14:31 infidelity, adultery stuff y'all fighting back from. I'm
14:34 not telling you to throw your marriage away. A stupid act
14:37 doesn't mean your marriage is over. But I am saying I don't
14:39 want to be married to nobody small. No, I speak over your
14:42 life. And singles, y'all better hear me. You're gonna hate you
14:45 marry somebody that can't pray. Y'all don't want to talk. Yeah.
14:52 Can you imagine your mother gets sick and you try to pray
14:55 with him? He's like, "I don't know what you want me to do."
14:57 And that's when it hits you, all he is is cute.
15:02 No, no, no, no, no. We got a bunch of groups. Married
15:09 couples, join one of our marriage groups because at the
15:12 World Church, I'm determined. I thought to myself the other day
15:15 I have it on my wall, on my list, and at the cemetery,
15:19 y'all can write it. I have loved and been loved by a
15:23 beautiful woman. That's a good thing to say in life, amen.
15:27 And I speak over your life. Come on, married couples, y'all
15:30 need to hear me. If you're single, receive this by faith
15:33 and watch this, it is better to be alone than married wrong.
15:36 No, don't you be sitting back there, I wish I had somebody,
15:39 girl, please. You got Jesus, you got some money, you got
15:42 peace of mind, you got your own apartment, you got your own
15:45 car, you got your own credit, you can go where you want to
15:47 go, eat what you want to eat. I wish I had somebody single to
15:50 jump up and sit back down and holler, "I feel that."
15:52 But if you do choose to get married, believe God for a mega
16:03 marriage. Yeah, and then watch this, mega ministry. Say
16:09 mega ministry. Okay, I'm teaching those that are watching
16:12 me across the world, some series got to be for your people
16:16 and those who watch from a peripheral are welcome, but I'm
16:20 working on something, so I'm not as worried about a million
16:22 clicks on this series as I am about getting this into the
16:26 heart of those who support this place in space. So I want y'all
16:30 to hear me when I say mega ministry. Who goes all the way
16:33 back with me to our first start in John F. Kennedy High School?
16:37 Only a few of you. Who started in John F. Kennedy? Very few of
16:40 you. Many of you came to Maple, raise your hand. And then who
16:43 joined in this church? Raise your hand. This building. Yeah,
16:45 well, some of you don't know this, but we started in a high
16:48 school. That don't sound like much now, but I'm going to tell
16:51 you something that not many people know, not another church
16:54 in the history of Cleveland ever started in a school. And people
16:58 around the country stole the idea from me. I'm not the first
17:01 to do it, but the first in Cleveland to ever start. No one
17:05 ever thought about that. If you wanted to start a church and if
17:07 you don't know the story, today's not the day for it, but
17:09 I was locked out in my first church for being too radical.
17:12 And so I start the word church. And long story short, most of
17:15 the time when you start a church, you would go get you
17:17 what they call a storefront. You ever heard of a storefront
17:21 church? Yeah, right in front of one of those little stores,
17:24 somebody gets a little store and turning it into a church,
17:27 and somebody had found one for me. And something in my spirit
17:31 said, "That's going to be my office." Okay, y'all not, I feel
17:36 like shouting. I'm sorry. Lean on somebody and say, "I'm bigger
17:39 than that. Go ahead, y'all." No, no, y'all not having church
17:43 with me. So I go to John F. Kennedy High School and I say to
17:46 the principal, who's still alive by the way, I just saw her at
17:49 an event I got an award for, and I said, "What's up?" I said,
17:53 "Can I please start a church?" She said, "A church in a school?"
17:56 She said, "I need a week to think about it." She said, "I
17:59 gotta think about it because I never heard of that." Can I tell
18:02 y'all why I did that? Because I walked in there and it looked
18:05 like a mega church. Okay, I want y'all to catch this. It had
18:09 high ceilings. It had a balcony. It had a stage. It had lights.
18:15 Somebody's not shouting. You gotta see it before you can be
18:18 it. Come on, somebody. Y'all just missed y'all shouting.
18:22 Today, after church, I need you to ride to the neighborhoods
18:26 you wanna live in and just walk around. Walk around like you're
18:31 a part of the owner's association. Take your dog and
18:35 everything, just walk. Just, "Hey, Bob, good to see you,
18:37 praise God." Oh, no, I don't live here. I live on St. Clair.
18:40 Praise God, I live on St. Clair. But I'm up in here today
18:44 just walking. I wish I had somebody that believed 2024,
18:49 God's about to make you bigger than what you've been, but you
18:53 need preaching that pushes you and you need a vision.
18:56 I got thousands of new people virtually and in the sanctuary,
19:06 so please forgive my redundancy. But they asked Walt
19:10 Disney. Walt Disney picked the place he wanted in Florida and
19:13 he died before Walt Disney, Disney World was ever complete
19:18 and they said one day as they were sitting around talking,
19:21 "I wish Walt could have lived to see this." And somebody
19:25 answered, "He did see it, that's why I was here."
19:27 I wish I had 10 people in the back, 25 people say, "I see
19:35 some stuff." Go ahead. I may not have it yet, but I see it.
19:38 And that pushes us to mega ministry. This is a mega
19:46 ministry. Thousands of people, technically from 1500 to 2000
19:51 people coming on Sunday equals what you call a mega church.
19:54 It's something new, particularly to many of you that
19:59 have went to smaller churches. And by the way, there's nothing
20:01 wrong with smaller churches. I got my formation in a smaller
20:03 church. A formation lets you practice, a smaller church lets
20:07 you practice preaching because in a church this big, everybody
20:09 just can't get up and preach. People take family vacations to
20:13 meet my wife and I. They come from San Antonio. One lady, 30
20:16 years married, her husband said, "Wherever you want to go in the
20:19 world for our 30th is on you." She said, "Take me to Cleveland."
20:22 Yeah, they sat right over there. Her 30th anniversary, she
20:26 could have been in Dubai. She said, "I want to go meet Pastor
20:29 Vernon and see the Word Church in person." You're a part of
20:32 something big, everybody. Y'all better clap your hands. You're
20:35 a part of something big, amen. All right, let's get it. Acts 2
20:41 verse 42, I got to go fast. I got something to show you. The
20:43 disciples were devoted to the teachings of the apostles, to
20:47 fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Let me
20:51 read it again. Put it on the screen from the beginning.
20:53 Everybody read it out loud with me. The disciples were devoted
20:57 to the teachings of the apostles, to fellowship, to the
21:01 breaking of bread, and to prayer. Out loud this time.
21:03 Ready, set, read. The disciples were devoted to the teaching of
21:07 the apostles, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to
21:11 prayer. Those watching me on Instagram, those watching me on
21:14 YouTube, those watching me on Facebook, any place in the
21:17 world, I'm right. Anybody else that teaches you different,
21:21 they're wrong. All we know about the first church is these
21:25 four things. There was no praising. There was no pulpit.
21:31 That's nine centuries later. All right? There are no church
21:35 buildings. That's almost three centuries later. From the time
21:39 Jesus went back up to heaven, they met in people's houses.
21:43 There was no buildings. There was no stage. There was no
21:47 choir. There was no podium. All this is stuff we've added,
21:52 which is fine to make church better. But don't call it
21:56 church. Just say that makes church flow better. I like the
22:01 worship team. I like parking people. I like the lights. It
22:05 makes us see us better. Yes, we got to build a bridge of
22:09 modernity from ancient antiquity, because come on, Paul
22:14 wrote six weeks on a ship to deliver a letter. He could have
22:20 just sent the email today. He could have avoided all them
22:25 snake bites and shipwrecks with just one email. Hi, I, Paul.
22:29 Okay, y'all not feeling it. Are y'all catching this? So I want
22:33 you to write this down, and I'm going fast. I got something to
22:36 show you. The first thing we see, and you should get it too,
22:39 is trusted teaching. Trusted teaching. The Bible says they
22:44 listen to the apostles' teaching. Some of you got to
22:49 get rid of these Snapchat scholars. You just listen to
22:57 too many people. Yeah, yeah. By the time this week is over,
23:01 we'll have anywhere from 15 to 30,000 people that's going to
23:05 watch this sermon. I'm not mad. I appreciate the clicks and all
23:07 of that. I do, those that are watching. But I am saying, be
23:11 careful when too many words going in your mind. Yeah. Who's
23:17 your pastor? What church you go to? More than any of that, who's
23:21 your Savior? Three things you should know. Jesus is my Savior.
23:25 I go to the World Church. Pastor Lady Vernon, my pastors.
23:30 That's it. If I die, y'all don't have to have no meeting. Do
23:33 y'all know how much headache we deal with every week about
23:36 people who die in Cleveland trying to have their funeral
23:39 here and don't go here? Don't go nowhere. I'm not mad. We work
23:43 it out sometime. We try to help them. They in funeral homes.
23:45 They call in churches everywhere because somebody died
23:48 without answering that essential question. Where are you
23:52 situated? Who's your pastor? What church you go to? Trusted
23:59 teaching. You can't listen to everything right now. Yeah. I'm
24:03 getting ready to do a podcast with some major scholar brothers
24:05 that I love. They wrong and I'm right. Got just as much degree
24:12 as me and some of them got PhDs. I have a doctorate of
24:14 ministry. They got PhDs which is the highest degree you can get
24:18 in New Testament and they still wrong. Because they're wrong.
24:21 And I told you this before, because somebody's smarter than
24:23 you don't mean they're righter than you. Oh, y'all not listening
24:28 to me over here. Because somebody been to school longer
24:30 than you don't mean they're smarter than you. No, how you
24:34 know pastor? I'm going grandma. Hit three people say the Holy
24:36 Ghost told me. Go ahead. Oh, y'all don't want to talk. So,
24:41 get all these degrees. Let's go Pentecostal. The Holy Ghost
24:43 told me. The Holy Ghost told me only certain people supposed to
24:48 kiss each other. Okay, you know what y'all don't. You can come
24:55 deep as you want. You can misappropriate biblical texts.
25:00 You can isogenically massacre Romans one. You can do whatever
25:04 you want when you get through it all of that. There's some
25:06 stuff I'm right about. And you need a church. Watch this. And
25:10 your kids need a church. And your grandkids need a church
25:14 that's going to teach them what God says. Not popular opinion.
25:20 So, they don't end up lost and live in some way that God don't
25:24 want them to live. This is trusted teaching. When I tell
25:29 you something, I have bathed it in the Holy Ghost. I have
25:34 looked at it in the Greek, Hebraic, and Aramaic. The three
25:40 languages of which the Old and New Testament are written. I
25:43 have looked at it. I have read comments on commentators. I
25:47 have deductively reasoned it out. I have practically applied
25:50 it. I've asked the Holy Spirit to show me and sometime I'm
25:54 still wrong. Y'all don't want to hear this because there's
25:59 nobody that gets it right all the time. But you want to find
26:05 somebody that's trying to get it right. Your soul is on the
26:09 line. And pastor, when you stand up there and teach me God's
26:17 Word, don't let it be your opinion. Let it be what He
26:23 said. Say trusted teaching. Here's a scripture for you. You
26:28 may want to write it down and remember it. Then I gotta hurry.
26:30 First Corinthians four verses uh fifteen and sixteen. For even
26:34 if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you
26:37 have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in
26:40 Christ Jesus when I preached the good news to you. So, I urge
26:44 you to imitate me. How come he didn't say imitate Jesus? I'm
26:50 about to make somebody real mad. Lean on your neighbor and say
26:53 cuz Jesus ain't here.
26:56 Oh Jesus. Your kids gotta see Jesus in you.
27:08 They can read about Jesus but you gotta model Jesus. Do you
27:14 know how much pressure Paul put on himself to say imitate me?
27:19 Do you know what I gotta try to do to tell you? Hey, every
27:22 married couple, look at Lady Vernon and I and for the most
27:26 part, do that. All men in this church, watch how I treat my
27:32 wife and you treat your wife that way too. Watch how I try
27:35 to keep myself together. That means that if I'm gonna ask you
27:38 to imitate me, I gotta be the truth. I gotta follow Christ as
27:42 you follow me. And so you need, say trusted teaching. Yeah, but
27:46 then the Bible says not only were they committed to the
27:48 apostles teaching, he says you have many instructors. You have
27:52 many, I call it, I call them spiritual uncles. I got uncles
27:55 that I learned from whose churches are bigger than my
27:58 pastors but Joey Johnson, my spiritual father, I have never
28:01 changed. How long you been coming here? Some of you sick
28:03 of that name. I don't care. I don't switch. I don't switch.
28:07 But pastor, there's some preachers with bigger churches
28:09 because you're behind, gets bigger than your mama's behind.
28:11 She's still your mama. I'm with Joey Johnson. He spoke life
28:16 into me. He helped me emotionally or her and I might
28:20 be divorced right now with all the stuff I got in my past. He
28:23 spoke life over my mind at a time where I had a big church
28:27 but little emotional health and he spoke life into me and I love
28:30 him forever and I'm not changing and I'm loyal to the
28:34 death. He's 72, about to retire, but that's my daddy. Y'all not
28:39 talking to me. And I need you to settle whether it's here or
28:43 another place, you and your spouse, this our church. This
28:48 is where we listen. This is where we learn. This is where
28:51 we imitate. As long as that brother following Jesus, I'm
28:56 gonna follow that ministry. Amen, everybody. But then
29:00 secondly, say fellowship. Can I tell you what these groups are
29:04 about? Can I tell you what church is all about too? It's
29:06 also about fellowship because where you gonna get it at if
29:10 you don't get it here? I wanna read the Bible to you. Forgive
29:14 me. Watch what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6 14. Be not
29:18 unequally yoked. Well, I'll read verses 14 and 15 from the
29:21 NRSV. Stop forming inappropriate relationship with
29:24 unbelievers. Can right and wrong be partners? Can light
29:30 have anything in common with darkness? Can Christ agree with
29:34 the devil? Can a believer share life with an unbeliever? First
29:39 rule in my book, my new book, know your non-negotiables. You
29:44 better know your non-negotiable singles. The first
29:47 non-negotiable, okay, when I was 27, I said, I ain't want no
29:51 girl with kids. But now I'm 57. The girl gonna have grandkids
29:54 when I meet her. Praise God. Amen. I gotta, some of you gotta
29:57 let go some of them non-negotiables. But one thing I
29:59 would never negotiate is a person not loving Jesus. No, no,
30:04 no, no, no. Can you imagine? I can't. I've never done it. So I
30:08 came first. Some of you are married to people who maybe
30:10 don't know God. You know how challenging that can be. I'm
30:13 talking to people who are still dating and friends and people
30:17 you kick it with. Christ, I feel like heaven church, is the
30:22 common denominator. Christ is the accelerator. Christ is the
30:29 initiator. Can I tell you what my wife and I are able to hold
30:32 on to? Say Christ. I can't just be kicking it with people who
30:37 doing all this stuff that Christ don't want me to do. So
30:40 authentic community should necessitate authentic
30:45 accountability. Authentic community. Say community.
30:48 Community. Authentic community, which means that I'm finished.
30:51 Look at me. I can't go to a church or I wanna go to a
30:55 church where somebody holds me accountable. One of the reasons
30:59 for these groups and things we're doing is because when I'm
31:02 in a group, at least the people in my group know me. When I'm
31:05 on the praise team, at least the praise team know me. When I'm
31:07 a part of Men's Monday, at least the men know me. Why?
31:10 Because don't act like you can't fall.
31:14 Authentic community, this is so important, should necessitate
31:21 authentic accountability, which means you gotta have a church
31:24 where you give them room to get in your business. Y'all got
31:28 quiet. Amen. I'm gonna say this and if you don't feel me, I love
31:33 you anyway. If y'all ever hear the pastor has lost his mind and
31:37 somebody saw him downtown with eight strippers and four
31:40 prostitutes. He went in this hotel. Lady Verna looking at me
31:44 pretty strange right now so I'm not gonna look over there.
31:46 Praise God. Amen. He went in this hotel. He ain't came out
31:50 in three weeks. Would y'all do me a favor? Hit somebody and
31:53 say, "Please come get me." Go ahead. Tell somebody. Y'all
31:57 looking at me strange. How many of you want somebody to speak
32:00 over your life if the devil ever starts to mess with you? I need
32:04 some people in my life that will call me out and say, "That's
32:07 not right. The devil's trying to get you back. You can't go
32:10 back to that. You better than that." I need some people at my
32:13 church that will hold me accountable and say, "Devil,
32:16 you can't have her back." God got His hand on him. Clap your
32:22 hands if you want somebody.
32:26 [applause]
32:31 All right, I'm going, y'all. Here it is. So, the Bible says
32:33 everyone around was in awe and signs and wonders were being
32:36 done through the apostles. It was scary. So much was happening
32:39 in that first church. They didn't know what to do. People
32:41 was getting saved. First of all, there was scary spirituality.
32:44 Can I speak over your life? That God's about to take you to
32:46 another level in the Holy Ghost and people who saw you one way
32:50 are gonna see that God has made a change over your life. God is
32:52 about to shift some stuff in your life. But then, number two,
32:55 there was scary relevancy. Scary relevancy. Say relevancy. Say
33:01 relevancy. I want y'all to catch how important this is. I just
33:05 saw with some white, beautiful church last week for the Super
33:08 Bowl. They had a football on the stage, seriously, and they had
33:12 like a guy kick a field goal and they're killing the guy on
33:15 social media saying that that's not church. People saying, "Why
33:19 would he do that in church?" You know what he's trying to do?
33:21 Get people saved. He's trying to think out the box. I'm not
33:26 gonna hate on that. I've been going to some funerals and I
33:29 know I'm preaching different today, but this is all over me.
33:31 If you love me, then receive your prophet today. I've been
33:34 going to these funerals and recently, and a bunch of them I
33:38 walk in and half the guys I grew up with, they not even in the
33:41 service. They out there getting high. Why the preacher preaching?
33:45 They just come, "What's up, Ray? What's up, Ray?" And I
33:49 smelled like weed when I walked in and when I left. Because
33:52 them brothers hugging me and I'm loving on them and I'm kissing
33:55 on them. They're out there drinking and smoking. "Man,
33:57 what's up, Ray?" And we talking about the brother who died and
34:00 all that. And I'm like, "Why y'all ain't in there?" "Oh, we
34:02 good, man." I said, "I got to go in for a minute. I got to go in.
34:05 Let me — I'll be back." So I go in and different places I've
34:08 been several times and the preacher preaching and nobody in
34:11 there looking at him. Nobody in there paying him no attention.
34:15 And y'all have to know I'm jumping up and down in the back
34:17 thinking, "I want that mic. I want that mic." And so I ain't
34:26 — I'm literally the preacher preaching. I was wrong, y'all.
34:29 I'm looking at him like this. I did. God know I did. And I was
34:34 hoping he was going to say, "That's Pastor Vernon back
34:36 there," but he never said my name. And I was like — I ain't
34:41 never did that. Y'all know I don't need no members. I'm
34:43 thinking, "Just give me six minutes with that mic. I need
34:46 six minutes because there's a way you can say this, brother,
34:49 that you can grab everybody in here and make them understand
34:54 that they need Jesus and that no matter what they do, but the
34:58 way you saying it is true but it's not relevant." And so you
35:03 ought to thank God for a relevant church!
35:05 Say relevant. I'm going, y'all. Y'all come on. I think I got
35:12 some team — I got some players out here. Y'all come on. Where
35:14 my guys at? Where my teammates? Where my teammates? Where my
35:17 team? Where my teammates? Where my teammates? Praise God. Amen.
35:20 And y'all better — we got to go, y'all. I mean, we hooping
35:24 today. I mean, Elder Coleman, like he took too much caffeine
35:28 before he got out here. And so, you know, you know. Come on,
35:33 give it back to me, baby. Come on. Come on. That's right.
35:35 Praise God. There you go. Go and shoot it. Go and shoot it. Go
35:38 and shoot it. Go and — it's only six feet. Come on, praise
35:41 God. Amen. Amen. And I'm so sick of this old myth talking
35:45 about white men can't jump. I got Minister Roger and a white
35:50 brother won the dunk contest last night. A white brother.
35:53 So, Roger, this is for your ancestors right here.
35:57 Debunk it. Debunk it. Debunk it. Debunk it. Debunk it.
36:00 Oh my God! Oh, Roger! For your ancestors.
36:09 All right, y'all, we hooping, right? So, we hooping.
36:14 And it's easy, right? Because there's nobody out here.
36:18 Then I tell y'all last week, anybody can ball. But what about
36:22 when them demons, defense, start coming at you? Oh, oh,
36:30 when the defense come. I keep telling y'all, you can do
36:34 ministry — come on, TC, before I break your ankle. I'm gonna
36:35 break your whole ankle. Precinct, please get back, TC.
36:39 But, listen, so it's easy, right? Watch this. So, it's easy
36:45 to hoop, and I'm in ministry until my job let me go. Yeah,
36:51 I'm in ministry until my kids break my heart. I'm honoring
36:54 God. I'm trying to teach y'all that the weapons of our
36:56 warfare, I feel like preaching, are not carnal. And
36:59 sometimes, no matter how much you try, life gonna hit you,
37:01 and you throw a bad — and next thing you — that's called
37:07 life. Sometimes you look up, and the enemy running the other
37:13 way with your vision. Ball out, ball out, call me ball out,
37:17 ball out, ball out. But that's OK. Somebody should have
37:21 noticed something. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. So,
37:25 did anybody notice something? They think they got us out
37:28 number. As far as I can see, it's four, but they don't know
37:32 I got somebody on my team they ain't got. And he's bigger than
37:36 all of them. I'm sorry, hit somebody and say "throw it to
37:44 Jesus." Go ahead. When you don't know what else to do, if
37:49 you keep your hand in Jesus' hand, if we all stay connected
37:53 to the cross, he's bigger than the devil. He's bigger than
37:59 your opponent. And I want to say to all of you, hear me, I
38:02 know this was a different kind of sermon, hold on to Jesus.
38:08 Man, this is crazy. Creativity, everybody getting in the game.
38:14 It's a vision series in your life, in your marriage. You've
38:16 been too passive, too apathetic. At your church, get
38:19 in the game. Souls need to be saved. Money needs to be made.
38:22 Ministry needs to be done. Kids need to be raised. This is not
38:25 the time for passivity. This is a vision series. Get in the
38:30 game. You saw that. We out. Tell everybody.
38:36 (upbeat music)