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The Greater Faith Conference 2025 - Pt. 4 - Under The Mighty Hand
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Thanks, guys. Like Phyllis said, we're going to have our laying on of hands for some of our ministers tonight. Those that are already. They know it and are prepared for it. It's a Faith Life International thing. But I want to share for a bit before we get there. This goes in line with what we've been talking about. And the ministry is the message tonight. It won't be another thing after that. The message is the ministry. The ministry is the message. And y' all are quiet. Go to 1 Peter, the fifth chapter in preparing for this week. The Lord dealt with me about the greatest measure of faith, the greatest level and kind of faith, and didn't plan on spending the first three days on obedience. But it's the same thing. It's the same thing. In fact, hold on to one Peter. Is that okay? Can we change if we want to and go to Matthew 8? Do it this way. Matthew 8. If we're going to be led by the Spirit, we can't be stuck in our ways, we can't be stuck to our plans. We have to be open, flexible. And that's not just preaching and teaching. That's everything in life. Matthew 8:5. When Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came to him a centurion beseeching him, and he said, lord, my servant lies at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Now just addressing him as Lord is a big deal because he's not a Jewish rabbi. Nobody said he's a disciple of Jesus. We know he's a spiritual man. He has helped the Jews, he's done some things, but he is a career soldier and war is always bad. But you know, back in the day, it's hand to hand blood and mud. And he's come up through the ranks and is an officer and has a group under him, a command under him. And in the Roman military you don't get that by being sloppy or by losing. So this man is a tried proven, he's got the scars to show it. He's been in the thick of it and he has seen all kind of conditions and he's come up through the ranks. Everybody say, rank, rank, rank. And he addresses the Master as Lord. Hallelujah. So this shows big respect because the place there at that time was occupied by the Romans and so ungodly Roman officers, they wouldn't have treated anybody around there, much less religious folks with any respect. So this man is different. And he starts it off with Lord, how do you get born again? Somebody help me out. If you'll Confess not that Jesus is a good person, wonderful teacher, not even just that He's Savior. Y' all with me now. He is what, Lord, Meaning Supreme One who is over you. And you see, that's exactly what he meant by what he says next, acknowledging him as over Him. Lord, my servant lies at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Now listen to this. Jesus said, I'll come. Just like that. I'll come and heal him. Not I'll come and see. I will come and heal. I mean, no discussion. No. Who are you? Are you worthy? Is it God's will? No. Let's go. Let's go get it. Is he still the same? Jesus Christ? The same yesterday, today, forever? Is he still. I'll come. Let's do it. He never changes. No respecter of persons. The centurion said, lord, I'm not worthy that yout should come under my roof. Which was true. Nor are you in and of yourself. The only worthiness we have is his worthiness that he gave us, that we received. And you never want to talk to the Lord about how good a Christian you've been in connection with your healing. Because it's got nothing to do with it. You and I couldn't buy our salvation. We couldn't buy our forgiveness. We couldn't earn a healing. We could not earn a deliverance, no matter what we did. If we could have, Jesus wouldn't have had to come. But he did. And I don't. I quit using that word years ago. The Lord pointed it out to me. I had somebody tell me at one point. They said, y' all have worked real hard to. You deserve this. And, boy, it bothered me when I heard it. I thought, what's wrong with that, Lord? He said, you don't, no matter what you've done, because if you deserve it, there's no grace. It's pay. It's what you're owed. I don't deserve it. You don't deserve it. But I enjoy it. I get to enjoy it. Hallelujah. That's what grace is all about. I get, you get. We get what we did not deserve, what we could not earn, but I don't deserve it. And he's right. Especially this is before the new birth. This is before all this. He said, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak the Word only. Now. Come on, who's talking? You can be sure that those that were with him, when he comes out and he's standing at attention, he sent actually elders to the Lord. And then he came. But they have their training and their formality. I mean, if their leader comes out and he's at attention and he's calling somebody Lord, you know what they're doing? They're back there at a brace. Showing some respect. Showing some respect. Showing some respect. This is one of only two places in the New Testament where we're told somebody had great faith. Other places, the Lord said, oh, ye of little faith. Sometimes he says, how is it that you have no faith? That was more common. And what's amazing here is you'll see, often you don't find faith where you think you would find it. Not at the synagogue. Y' all with me? No. Here is a hardened soldier. Why is this recorded for us and held up of only one of two? In fact, when he said, I hadn't seen such great faith, the literal is, I hadn't seen so much faith. How many would like for the Lord to look at you in a situation and go, I haven't seen so much, Father. Did you see that? Michael, you watching this? What a comment. What an accolade. We need to understand this. He said, y' all reading with me. Keep going. He said, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof. But speak the word only. Speak the word only and we'll see what happens. No, see, faith knows ahead of time the outcome. If you're still deliberating the outcome, you're not in faith. You haven't become convinced of the will of God yet. We'll try it and see. There's no faith. Speak the word only. And what did he say would happen? My servant shall be healed. Shall be. This ambiguity is wavering. It's not okay. And what happens? A lot of times people are not ready to pray. They want you to pray. Let's hurry up and do this. But sometimes you need to ask a few questions and see. Okay, when we pray, what do we think is going to happen? Well, we just thought we'd pray and see. You're not ready to pray. He says, speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. For then he says, why? He says this? Why? He said, speak the word only. Why he is so convinced my servant will be healed for? Or we say, because I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go. And what happens? He goes, you better believe in the Roman army. Your superior officer told you something. You don't look at him and go, really? I'll get to it, Uncle. You will? You wouldn't do it twice. I say to this man, go. And when he said that, somebody jumped because they thought he was telling them. He said, no, not you, not you. I tell my man, go. And what happens? He is moving by the time I finish saying it. I tell my servant, do this. What happens? He does it every time. No exceptions. Why? Because of the authority. Now, verse 10. When Jesus heard it, he marveled. Now, Jesus is not somebody that oohs and ahhs over every dumb thing. He marveled. He marveled. And he said to them that followed, he looked around. You have to remember his bunch. His crusade team is here, too. Is that right? He said, verily, I say to you, I have not found so great faith, not in the whole country of Israel. That includes everybody from the high priest, every rabbi, every doctor of the law, everybody called himself a prophet or prayer. It didn't matter who it was. Who, Who? This guy has never been to seminary. Who? Who is this? Back in the late 70s, Phyllis and I were introduced to what we call the Word of Faith through the ministry of Kenneth Copeland. We will forever be grateful and thankful for that. It was through their ministry we found out about Kenneth Hagin Ministries and eventually came to Rhema. And so blessed to learn about faith. And from the very beginning, that's been a central part of our life and ministry. It's faith in the morning, faith in the noontime, and faith when the sun goes down. Never get tired of it. More excited the longer we go. And so I had the privilege of helping and serving at Brother Hagin's ministry for a number of years, serving in the healing school, the prayer school, and different things. And eventually they allowed us to teach in the Bible school. And among other things, it was, as you might imagine, faith and faith. I got to monitor his classes and sit under him more and extra and. And what did he teach on faith and faith? And so for years, I taught faith, taught faith. At one point, the Lord began to deal with me about another subject, submission and authority. And eventually the Hagins, in their graciousness, they heard some of it and they liked it. And they allowed me to do a whole course. And we talked about submission and authority, and we talked about pride and humility. And it's very popular. I mean, I heard this a lot. Students would say, you know, Brother Keith, I never had any problems with pride until I came to your class. I said, you don't have problems with something you just yield to. It's when you start dealing with it that you find out. And so the Lord ministered to me about that for a number of years. And I thought, this is interesting. This is another stream. And it took me probably too long, but 15 years or so. And the Lord showed me, Keith, it's the same thing. This is faith. This is faith. In fact, it's the greatest faith. Are y' all with me or not? I didn't see it for years, and I saw people despised. Hasn't gotten any better in today's society. You mentioned the word submit. It's less popular than obey. And there's a reason for that. The devil hates it. He hates it. And the reason people don't submit is a lack of trust. That's the biggest. Pride can be a factor. But many times it just comes right back to fear. People, they hold on to it. They keep it in their hands. They won't listen. They won't submit because they're afraid. Now I have to take care of this myself. If I do, they'll use me. They'll abuse me. Fear. Fear. It's quiet in here. The Lord said to me, this is faith. This is your ministry. And it's the same thing. It's not an accident that the greatest faith Jesus remarks about is showing what? Submission and obedience. The very word submit in the Scriptures is a military term. It means to rank or arrange. Under. What did he keep saying? I am a man under. And I have people. What under? And Jesus turned around and said, this is the most amazing faith. I haven't seen faith like this anywhere among God's people. Anywhere. And what is it? This man is not a theologian. I don't know how much scripture he could even quote. A lot of times back then, soldiers couldn't even read or write. I don't know. That didn't matter. What he knew, what he understood was rank. Come on, y' all with me or not? And he knew who was over him and who he was over. Oh, come on. Are y' all with me or not? Most people don't even know that today, but he knew. And what he does is he comes and says, permission to be healed, sir. And the Lord said, healed. Thank you, sir. That's it. That's it. Nothing to discuss. Nothing to debate. And the Lord said, now that's faith. That's faith. Hallelujah. That's faith. That's not walking by sight. That's not walking by feeling. But you have to know who's over you. Many don't. And it is something you grow in the understanding of y'. All. Okay, you're there. In Matthew, go to the 20th chapter. Oh, hallelujah. Submission is one of the most glorious things you ever heard about. If you don't think so, it's because you don't know what it is. But if you want to come to the highest place of faith, you'll have to understand it. No avoiding it, no way around it. Matthew 20:20. Before we go any further, we need such mind renewal here. The world is so opposed to this. So everybody say it out. Father God, teach me. Reveal to me and confirm in me what true submission to God is. I want to know. I want to do it in Jesus name. That's what James says. Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Do you know what that is? It's submission and authority. It's understanding of rank. You give God his place over you, you take your place under him, and then you put the devil and his place under your feet. But if you're yielding to the enemy and you're rebelling against God, it doesn't work. The enemy knows it. He goes, I don't have to yield to you. You're yielding to me. Matthew 20. This is one of the big things that the enemy has been able to confuse people with. Matthew 20:20. There came Jesus, the mother of Zebedee's children, with her sons worshiping Him. Come on, get the picture. Jesus is there, and this mother comes with her two boys, two of his disciples. She comes in, all respectful worshiping, and she said, lord, we want to ask youk something. He said, okay. He said, what do you want? She said, would you grant that these two my sons will sit, the one on youn right hand and the other on youn left hand in youn kingdom? Jesus talked so much about the kingdom of God and. And kingdom of heaven. This was so real to them. They thought, we need to lock up the top spots. And Mama said, come on, boys, we going now before anybody gets ahead of us. She said, jesus, how about left and right top? You know, these are good boys. You know they are. And if you read Luke's account, he said, it's not mine to give. Which is one indication that Jesus is not the Father. Some people have doctrinal things about that. And he said, it's not mine to give, but it's the Father's. So then they leave. And the other 10 heard it. They heard it. And verse 24, when the other 10 heard it, they were moved with indignation. Now that's really mad. Moved with indignation against the two brethren because they didn't think of it. First, And that was the Keith Moore commentary there. And. Verse 25, everybody awake. Jesus called them to him, and he turned this into a teaching moment. He said, y' all come on back. Everybody come here. He said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them. Now, anytime you hear these words, over, under, under, over, hear it with a new ear. Now, in the family of God, there is no rank, but in the kingdom of God there is. When it comes to the family of God, we are all equally loved. And the benefits of the blood are available to us all equally. The gift of the Holy Spirit, the list goes on. But in the kingdom, there is over and under, and it's God's choice. And regardless of what you think about the person, you should respect God's choice. And you may not be able to appreciate and respect everything a person in a place of authority says and does, but you must respect the place or you're disrespecting God himself who put them into place. You remember we talked about Saul a couple of nights ago, and you remember that he became virtually a demon possessed person. And David then later on, when he's running with his men for his life, chased like a criminal, had opportunity to take him out. And the guys that were with him, he said, no, I'm going to do it. They said, just go over there and look away. We'll take care of him. We'll hit him one time. It will be done. He said, no, no. He said, his time will come. But I will not touch the Lord's anointed. This is a demon possessed man. What do you mean, the Lord's anointed? No, God had called him. God had chosen him, and the holy oil had been poured on him. Come. Y' all listening? He is off the rails of. But David had enough understanding and reverence to know it's not for me. I will not touch him. God will take care of him. And he did. Do we need to learn more about that today? Oh, there's so much disrespect, but keep reading. He said, the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But what? Say it out loud, it shall not be so among you. He's correcting them, what they were just trying to do and what they were arguing about. And if you read another verse, it said there was a disputing among them who would be the greatest in the kingdom. He's correcting them. He's basically telling them, you don't know what spirit you're of you don't know. My kingdom operates differently. It will not be so among you, but whoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whoever will be chief among you, that's top high, let him be your servant. Actually, the word is, whoever will be Protos, let him be Doulos. In God's kingdom, the way up is down. What do you mean, humbling yourself? Humbling yourself. What did Jesus say? Come and learn of me. Of all the myriad of things he could've said about himself, what did he say? I'm meek. That's the big thing you want us to get? Yep. I'm meek, humble. That's not weak. The problem is, many people are too weak and too weak in faith. Submit they're not strong enough to do. Takes faith. It takes more faith than many people are at. Oh, but it is the direct path to elevation. It's how God does it. Listen to this. Jesus called them to him and said, you know, the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion. That word could be translated subjugate over them. Matthew 20:25. They that are great exercise authority upon them. This is what many have not understood. They thought, submission is subjugation. And you're talking two totally different kingdoms now. Two totally different. If you look at the New Testament, there's half a dozen categories where the Lord says, submit yourself, you younger. Submit yourself to the elder. We just got through reading. Submit yourself to God. And the Word is always like that. Submit yourself. What's the understood subject? You submit. You submit yourself to God in every case. Husbands and wives. Every case, elder to those, obey them that have the rule over you. Submit yourselves. Submission of God is not something anyone does to you. Are y' all with me now? This is worth you combing your hair and coming out tonight right here. The submission of God is not something anyone does to you. And if you don't do it, it won't be done. And many are unwilling to do it, are too scared to do it or too proud to do it. And the problem is, your fears will come on you, and your pride will bring you low. Can you see that? You'll keep seeing this. Under, over, under, over. The word submit means to place under. So when he says you submit yourself, who's going to do that? Nobody else can do that. You will have to do it. You'll have to go and do it. And the enemy will fight you. Oh, he will fight you. They'll take advantage of you. They'll do this. They'll mistreat you. They'll abuse you. They'll this. They'll treat you like a doormat. Whatever. And the only way to overcome that is faith in God, not just faith in them. If he told you to do it, he's not telling you to hurt you. Come on, y', all, with me. If he told you to do it, in his words and his command to you to do it, he is grace and help and strength to do it. Hallelujah. And if you do it, you're not just doing it for them, you're doing it because he told you to. Now, you have to have a right heart about it, or it's not acceptable. But when you find out what it really is and when you really do it, you will find and experience the beauty of holiness that the Scripture talks about. And I'm getting ahead of myself. But you will find, like a husband desires the beauty of his wife, his bride. This is what the Master finds attractive with us. A meek and a quiet spirit is of great price to him. It's no wonder that it is completely the opposite of this ungodly world. It's loud and proud, and nobody can tell me what to do. And God finds that ugly. That's ugly to him, that's unattractive to Him. But somebody that is secure enough, has the faith, trusts enough, and knows authority when they see it, and says, master, Master, take youe place over me. And I'm so glad to have any place under your. If your heart is really true and that that's really your heart, the Lord looks at you and is attracted to you. He finds you beautiful in spirit, beautiful in heart. And you'll find that even between human beings, when somebody comes to you in humility and if you have a position and they willingly show some submission and deference, what does it do with you? It moves you. Is that right? It moves you to accommodate them. It moves you to care about them. God gives grace to the humble, but what about the proud? The opposite. It's like magnetic poles. One end of it attracts the other end. Because pride is of the devil. That's his nature. God is completely not like that. And you'll see that same thing with you. When somebody comes all up in your face and attitude and demanding in this. Does it make you want to run out and do stuff for them you like? No. I was in Spain a while back, and our interpreter, great guy, enjoyed him so much. They'd come on the news and some country was saying that Spain had done them wrong back 600 years ago. And they were demanding an apology and he was born and bred Spanish there. And he looked at me, he said, they can wait for that. I thought, yeah, they can be a long time waiting for that. They can wait for that. And that's how you feel when somebody comes, is that right? Demanding talk about what you owe them. Right? And they should be using some deferential terms. They should be showing some respect. But it's all about me. And give me what. I'm old. If you don't even say it, you're thinking, certainly you'll think it now. They can wait for that. I've done told you something now, haven't I? That's not a scripture, Y'. All. Okay, go to one Peter, please, the fifth chapter. And we're going to get ready to minister to these that we talked about. I know I'm taking some extra time, but this is very important. Very important. First Peter, the fifth chapter. Years ago, when the Lord first started dealing with me about this, he gave me three phrases. And like anything, if the Lord really gave it to you, the longer you go with it, the more you see how right it is and how true it is. And this he said, fear forces, love leads, faith follows, fear forces, love doesn't force. God is love. And no matter how desperately you need to do something, if your life depends on it, he will not force you to do a thing against your will, because that is an evil thing. He won't do it. Even if your eternal salvation is dependent on him. He will not force you against your will. You begin to see, submission has nothing to do with submission of God. Nothing to do with anybody making you do anything. You submit yourself and people that have for decades, longer than that, centuries. People know just enough scripture to be mean and cruel. I demand you submit to me. You will obey me. Never talk to an adult that way. Never. What if they won't obey? See? Fear. See, you're yielding to a wrong spirit. You're thinking, if I don't make them do it, they won't do it. That's not God. That's a wrong spirit. Jesus is not. Nothing against cowboys, but Jesus is not the good cowboy. What do you mean? Cowboy drives the herd. He's not the good cowboy. What is he? Good Shepherd. Shepherd does not drive the flock. The shepherd calls the. Come on, are y' all with me or not? Calls the sheep by name. And then what's supposed to happen? Faith will follow. What if they don't follow? Then they don't follow. What if they go year after year and they never follow? Well, then they won't. What if they get so far from God that they can't even see where he's at anymore? And the wolf comes and takes the stragglers and destroys them. Well, then that's what happens. But the Lord will not grab them and say, you will obey me. You will do. That's not happening. That's like the devil. He's a manipulator. He's a coercer. Fear forces every one of us. At some point, you. You'll have to catch yourself. Fear will be pushing on you. And you're thinking, why aren't they doing this? And we have to. And if you don't watch, you'll be trying to make somebody do something. And when it comes to an adult, no little ones, that's why they need parents. But adults, you have to realize the point where no matter how life and death or how serious it is, if God won't make them, I must not try. There comes a point where no matter how much you love them, you have to back off or you wind up yielding to a wrong spirit. Doesn't mean you're possessed, but you just yielded to something wrong. Everybody, say it out. Love leads. Fear forces. But love leads. And see, that's the thing. Whether it's a pastor, whether it's the head of a company, head of a family, head of a marriage. Give somebody something to follow. Come on. Are y' all with me? Pray. Do your own praying. Seek God. Get answers. Get the vision, get the plan. Get direction. And lead. Oh, somebody lead, lead, lead and say, come on, come on. But what if they won't? Well, then they won't. And it can be sad, but that's how God is. Fear forces. Love leads. And what faith follows. And, boy, love can lead you into some strange places. It can be dark. You can see eyes in the jungle. And the Lord says, come on, come on. And if you're too scared, you'll say, no, no, I'm going this way. And that means you don't trust him enough, and he won't make you. Oh, but if you're smart. Come on. If you're smart. If you're smart, you'll be like the psalmist. My soul follows hard after you. What does that mean? That means if he stops suddenly, you're going to hit him. You go, oh, sorry. Didn't know you were going to stop. Why? It's like being in the dark jungle with the only guy that's got the flashlight. Come on, y', all, with me. Do not get away from the Flashlight. Stay right with him every moment of every day. And the next thing you know, he'll come into a clearing where it is so beautiful and paradise. And it is exceeding abundantly above everything you ever thought. Love led you there and you had enough faith to follow. First Peter 5 and at some point, we're going to have the laying on of hands. 1st Peter 5:1 he said, the elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. A few years ago, the Lord started ministering to Phyllis and I that we are elders. And I'm like, really? And then you begin to look, a lot of the folks that were your elders, they already gone to heaven. Well, at some point. Who's the elders? And a lot of us have been in ministry 40 years more at some point. Why I say that is we need to take responsibility for it instead of waiting on somebody else. Elders, the elders are the experienced, and that's one area you'll never catch up with your elder in, no matter how much you study, how much you pray. Why? Because they got started 40 years ahead of you, right? And some things just take some time to learn. And there's something better from learning than learning from your own mistakes. It's learning from their mistakes, I'm telling you. Learning from somebody else's mistakes. If you have ears to hear it, if you'll listen, he said, keep going. He said, Verse 2, Feed the flock of God. This is near and dear to the Master's heart. You remember after the resurrection and Peter denying the Lord, when he talked to him personally, he said, do you love me? And Peter said, yeah, you know what? What did the Master say? Feed my lambs. At that point, everybody was a lamb. And then he said, do you love me? He said, yeah, Lord. He said, feed my sheep. The Lord never changes. If you're a pastor, if you're a minister, you have a sacred trust. The Lord is trusting you and me to feed his people. And so we don't want to feed them junk, right? And we want to make sure what we're telling is right. And we want to do it faithfully and do it honorably. He said, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, not willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Notice this neither as being what, lords over God's heritage. That's the same idea we've been talking about, but being what, examples to the flock we don't just tell people what to do. We show them. We show them what to do. We don't say, you need to do this, you need to do this. We don't just tell people to tithe, we tithe. We don't just tell people to give and believe God. We give and believe God. And that's one reason why you need to share some of your testimonies publicly, right? I mean, if it's not working for the leadership, that's not a good sign if there's never any testimonies. I mean, you heard me talking about this plane tonight. Some people are scared to talk about things like that. Oh, people won't like it. Oh, they may put you in the paper. I've already done that. People may stop giving. Ooh, ooh. Fear. Fear. Fear. Fear, Fear. No. You know, a few years ago, we got a boat, big old boat, 40 foot boat with a bunch of stuff. We put it up on the big screen. Boom. We said, hey, we got a boat. If you didn't lie, you didn't steal, you didn't do something wrong to get it. You got it the right way. You believed God, you sowed seed. He blessed you. There's nothing to be ashamed of. There's nothing to hide. Come here with me. Not talking about bragging, not talking about boasting now, but giving God glory, giving God praise. And you want people to be encouraged, that he'll do the same thing for them. Just thrill us to top. If you come back with a bigger boat and say, hey, I got a 50 foot boat, do it, brother. Move on. Whoa. Y' all listen so good. I just keep going. Blame it on you. Verse 4. When the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. All of us in the pastoral ministry, we are under shepherds. He is the Chief Shepherd. Verse 5. Likewise, you younger. Do what? Do what? Submit yourself to the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. Now, when he says, all of you be subject one to another. And Ephesians talks about submitting yourselves one to another. It is not the mutual submission idea some people have come up with. We all submit to each other equally. That's not submission. Somebody said, yeah, no. How do you determine who submits to who when it's your turn? No, I submitted last time. No, when he says, submit yourselves one to another, he. He's talking about through the whole body of Christ. Through the whole. And he told us specifically who submits to who in specific. Passages. No, this mutual submission stuff is not right. That's folks that don't even know what submission is. Thought I threw that in there. You younger, submit yourselves to the elder. All of you be subject to. And the thing is, clothed with humility. Not trying to run over somebody, never trying to force somebody to do something against their will. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. How many beside me want some grace? We don't want to get resisted. We want grace. I'll say this. And guys, y' all be getting ready to come up. We had the great privilege, in my opinion, Phyllis and I serving under some of the most amazing people on the planet. We had the opportunity to help and serve under brother Kenneth Hagin Sr. And Ms. Aretha, his wife. And we came, little country people with nothing and knowing nothing. And they were so gracious to us and gave us opportunity. And for 15 years we served and did different things and they just kept allowing us to do more and treated us like family. And at one point we felt like we were supposed to develop the ministry, additional ministry the Lord had called us to and not just continue indefinitely in the helps ministry there. But I asked his permission. I went to his office and talked to him and they allowed us to call him dad and his wife Mom. So, so gracious. And I told him what we had on our heart. He looked down, he said, well, you're not getting any younger. If you're going to do something, you need to get to it. I said, yes, sir. He said it was alright with him. And so we did. We resigned teaching in the school and those kind of things and we emphasizing our own. Well, it wasn't a month or so doing what we're doing. Everything is going good. Schedule is full, busy. I was in the floor one afternoon praying the service that was going to speak that night. And the Lord spoke to me and I knew it was him. I sat up. He said, I never released you from serving and helping Brother Hagin. I said, okay. Did we miss it by doing this? No. How can that be right? You have to watch about jumping to conclusions and putting your own interpretation on things. And so I came to Phyllis and we talked about it. She said, what are we going to do? And I said, we have to talk to them and see what we can do. Well, they were actually down in South Florida having a meeting and we contacted them and said, we're going to come down to the meeting. Can we see you? And we know you're busy and all that, but anytime what's convenient for you. You tell us. And dad said, well, we'll see. And sure enough, a few days later, he said, y' all come over. And we told him the Lord dealt with us, that he didn't release us from helping y'. All. I know y' all got a wonderful team. You got the singers and band. You got all kind of stuff around you, but can we help you? And Phyllis said, yeah, mom, can I help you? Is there something we can do? And he said they'd pray about it and see. Well, they told us the next day or so. Yeah, come with us on the road and we'll see. And the next five years, rich. And we wound up. Mom let Phyllis help her with her clothes and ironing, and dad let me help with some things. And next thing you know, we're at the mall together. Next thing you know, we're this and that. And he and I are sitting on the sofas solving the world's problems while they are spending money. And they allowed us to sing some specials. Next thing you know, he said, how about you speak in the morning? And one thing led to another. Why am I saying all this? We had served, but we didn't have that kind of fellowship until then. What if we had not? What if we had waited and said, well, Brother Hagin is a spiritual man. If he thinks we ought to do something, then they need to let us know. That is not you submitting yourself. Oh, come on. Are y' all with me or not? To them, that's not how that works. I've had people tell me if they think I ought to do something, then they just need to tell me, no, you need to pray through and repent and change your heart. And if the Lord told you to submit to somebody, even if they act like they have no use for you, you want to keep showing up and going, hey, I'm here. Can I do something? I'm good with the broom. Need a shoe shine. Y' all with me or not? If the Lord told you to help and he told you, we knew there was no question. They're over us. And I told Phyllis when we saw we were more and more getting to be involved with them and spending time and taking trips and other stuff. We got in the floor one time because we had had a little spat for some reason. I know it's hard for you to imagine, but we got in the floor and I said, phyllis, Brother Hagin is a prophet. Even though we're fighting when we walk in the room, and we cannot do this, it will be no good for them, if we're a distraction, if they're feeling like they need to minister to us. Y' all hear what I'm saying? I said, you and I, we have to have it together and get it fixed before we get there, right? And the Lord gave us word. He gave us a word. He said, I sent you here to help. I sent you here to learn. I did not send you here to judge. And so every time something came up that we had a question about, we looked at it and going here to help, here to learn. End of story. Right now, decades past that, it's not a day goes by something doesn't come up. And we think, where did I learn that at. With them on the road, in ministry, on the platform, seeing things. I'm not bringing it up to focus on us. Would it have happened if we had waited on them to notice us? Come on, are y' all with me? If we had said, hey, we've been there for 15 years. That's probably good enough. And we have to do. We paid our own way. And while you're doing that, you're not doing meetings, so you're not getting. But we needed to learn how to use our faith for what was coming next. We needed to learn the meetings are not your source. The offerings are not. Oh, come on. Are y' all with me? Everything was part of what was coming next. And what the Lord did with us, when we humbled ourselves and said, can we help? And they said yes, immediately he started doing this. Oh, come on. Can y' all see this? If you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Come on, tell me the rest of the verse. He will elevate you. Is what the word. He will elevate you. He will lift you. He will exalt you in due time. He's not opposed to you being lifted up and exalted. He's opposed to. To you doing it because you don't know how to do it. But the way he does it is you humble yourself before him and he says, okay, I see that. That's good. So here we go. But the moment he lifts you and you begin to get a little big head, and you think, people need to be doing what I say, now you're capped. I said, you are kept. Jesus himself, the Master, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. In that very passage he read, he said, I am among you as one that serves. And right before he went to the cross, what did he do? Come on, help me out. What did he do? Took off his outer garment. He said, Y' all sit down, got some water, came, washed their feet like the lowest servant and slave. Why? This is not a ritual. This is not religion. This is his heart. This is the kingdom. This is what God the Father looks at and goes, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's attractive to me. And that's somebody I can promote. I can use them, I can add to them, I can lift them up higher and higher and higher. Somebody say thank youk, Lord. So we have our ministers that are going to come and this won't take a lot longer if you patient just a little bit. And what they're saying is that they want to submit themselves to our leadership. And some of them. We've been in ministry long enough now that people have come up under us. There are many different other great ministerial organizations and sometimes people are a part of both. And that's fine with me if it's fine with them. You know, the Bible said all things are yours. You don't have to pick and choose. It's all ours. It's a gift from Him. So if you would everybody stand and let these ministers come.