Discovering & Knowing Your Purpose

0:04 On this past Tuesday, during Bible study, I started a series on purpose, discovering and knowing your purpose. And I feel compelled, since only a little bit less than 3,000 of you only come to, only 3,000 of y'all come to Bible study, I felt compelled to take a portion of what I covered on Tuesday and bring it to the other 7,000 of y'all that don't come to Bible study.

0:39 Amen, y'all. Clap on that point. Amen. So that's why I want to talk about this today, this morning. So if you already heard this, act like you ain't never heard it before. It's a portion of what I covered this past Tuesday. I'll finish the teaching, not this Tuesday, but the following Tuesday, 7 p.m. online. I'll finish the rest of the teaching. But I want to just cover this morning a part that I've already covered about discovering your purpose. Everybody in here has a purpose. Go ahead, look at your neighbor and say, as jacked up as you look, you got a purpose. Go ahead, tell them, I know you don't think you have a purpose, but God has a reason why he created you.

1:27 Amen. God has a reason why he created you. And a part of my assignment is to try to help you discover and know why God created you. I think it's tragic that our children go through their young adult life, many of them graduate from high school and even some from college, with no idea of why God created them. A part of what we try to do at our church is teach parents how to help their children discover how God wired your kids. Amen.

2:16 By the way, God didn't wire your kids to fulfill your unfilled desires. God created them to fulfill what he created them for. And that's what I want to talk about today. And I want to talk about it today. I got five points. They all begin with P. I have put these points together with the P's to try to help it make it easier for you to perpetuate the points. during your journey in life.

3:05 I want to do it from the story of Nehemiah. So I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. Start at chapter 1. I want to look at several verses and give you these five points. And I want you to make note of them. Now, by the way, some of you may not be at the place where God is ready to reveal to you your purpose yet. Or maybe it's not your time just yet, but it will come. So write the notes down because even if right now ain't your time, you're going to get to a place where God is going to want to bring you to the season of knowing what your purpose is. Are you all with me? Do you all follow me? So I think it's very important that you take notes. Only arrogant people don't take notes. Only people who don't think, who don't care, don't take notes.

4:04 You're assuming that you're going to remember. Let me tell you, you're not going to remember. I used to have a good memory. but time has a way of taking away your ability to remember. Are y'all with me so far? All right. Let me tell you about Nehemiah, okay? Nehemiah was living in a foreign country from where he was raised, where he was born and raised. And he got a job as the king's cup bearer. What that means is the king's cup bearer. It means that he drank a little bit of what the king was going to drink before he drank it just to make sure he had, the king has not been poisoned.

4:58 And he would eat some of the king's food just before the king would eat to make sure he had not been poisoned. Look at your neighbor and say, I am not applying for that job. I don't want that job. But that was Nehemiah's job. It's what he did. It was his job. He was the king's cupbearer. And God had a purpose for him. His home city, his hometown, his home country had been destroyed. The enemies had attacked Jerusalem. They had torn down the walls and destroyed. and now his relatives and friends and families who were remaining in Jerusalem are frustrated because there's no protection for the city. The walls have been torn down. And it is in his journey that he gets word back where he is. He gets word where he's living now that the people are distraught because there's no protection.

5:56 Are y'all with me? Have I lost you yet? So this is where this picks up. Who said teach on pastor? Thank you. I love you. God bless you. So open your Bibles. I got these. There's five points. Did I tell you all that? Five points? Did I tell you they all begin with P's? Go ahead. Go ahead, Pastor, with your P's.

6:17 I worked hard to put these P's together. here's the first p oh by the way while i'm on this point your purpose is different than your invocation. Some of you are working in a job, but that job, God created you for more than just driving a truck. He's got more for your life than what you may be employed to do right now. All right? So, here's the first point. It's passion. Say passion. Passion. God gives you a passion, a burden.

7:13 He gives you a determination, a passion about it. And that's what happened with Nehemiah. I want to read the first chapter of Nehemiah, verses 3 through 4. And then chapter 2, verse 17, it says this, and they said to me, verse 3, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire. So it was, verse 4, when I heard these words, this is Nehemiah talking, when I heard these words, here's how he responded, that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

8:07 Here is a man who is stressed out because of what's happening at his hometown. And he says, I was so stressed out, he said, I sat down and I wept and I mourned for many days. I was fasting and I'm praying before the God of heaven. Chapter two, verse 17. Let me read chapter two, verse 17. Then I said to them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach. He was stressed out because his hometown, his home people were stressed out and troubled. He picked up that same burden. He had a burden for something to be done. He had a passion. And I'm here to tell you that God will give you a passion about something that would drive you to want to do something about it. And that's what Nehemiah did. And this is what was manifested in my own personal life when I was a teenager. I was around 14 years of age. When I was 14, I would go to church. I was in the choir. I was in the Sunbeam choir. I was a URSA. I was in Sunday school. I was actively involved in church. And I even sang in the United Voices choir as a teenager. I was 14. But my peers, my friends in church was joking, laughing, sleeping. While the pastor was preaching, they were uninterested.

9:41 but I felt a burden that I could, I understood what the pastor was saying and I felt a burden to take what he was saying and put it in a way that I could communicate to them so that they would understand and I had a passion. That's how my call came on my life. Thank all 15 of y'all for that rousing affirmation. Yeah, that's how, that's how my call came. My call came by me feeling that burden. And I went to the pastor. I went to our pastor. It's a pastor before me here at First Baptist Church, and I went to the pastor, and I said, I feel God was calling me to the ministry. He said, I was 14. He said, you're a little bit young right now. He said, keep praying about it. So I kept praying about it. The next year, I went back to him. I'm 15 now, And I said, yep, I believe that this is what God has called me to do. He said, okay, well, we'll see what we can do about this next year.

10:42 I said, I can't wait till next year. Now, how dare a 15-year-old kid tell the pastor he can't wait? But when you have a call from God, it will press you to want to do something about it. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. When you have a passion about something, it's not something you can lay to the side and pick it up later. When you have a burden and a passion about something, what it is God called you to do, one of the first indications is that you have a passion about it. You have a burden. You want to do something about it. You want to make an impact about it. So I went back. I went to the pastor. I said, I can't wait till next year. That's something I can't do. I want to do something about this. Even though I was talking to my friends, we walked to school, I started a little singing group.

11:36 Fifteen, we had a little singing group. We were called John Jenkins and the Satan Stomper. Y'all ain't hear what I'm saying to you today. That was the name of our group. It didn't last long.

11:57 I had a burden about it. I had a passion about it. And so December the 23rd, 1973, the pastor licensed me to be a minister of God at 15. I was 15 years of age. the surrounding pastors in the community said, Reverend Johnson's down there licensing kids.

12:29 And after they talked about him amongst themselves, they called me and asked me to come preach at their church for youth service. Amen. Amen. And so that's how my call got revealed to me. That's how I got started with a passion to share the gospel. Somebody thank God that I responded to the call. Here's number two.

13:04 Possibilities. Possibilities. God opened up the possible. He gave me opportunities to preach. He gave me opportunities. Whatever God has called you to do, he gives you the opportunity. So I can have P's. I use the word possibilities, possibilities, but really it means opportunities. If you say you've been called to preach or whatever you've been called to do, but no opportunities exist, you ain't been called to that yet. When you've been called to it, God will open up doors of opportunity for you to do it. This is Jeremiah, and I'm sorry, Nehemiah chapter two, verses one through six. Here's what it says. And it came to pass, verse one, one through six, and it came to pass in the month of Nisan, on the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, why is your face sad since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid and said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city the place of my father's tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Then the king said to me, what do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it. Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return? Here's the key words. So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a tie. The king gave him an opportunity to take leave

15:12 from his job to go and do what God had called Nehemiah to do and open up an opportunity for him to go and take care of the walls around his hometown. Are y'all with me? Have I lost you? It's my son Jimmy right here. I'm so proud of him. How you doing, young man? God continues to open up doors of opportunity for him to do the things that he's doing. I talked about him a couple weeks ago. He just created a movie. Somebody donated to him to do his next movie a million dollars. Yes sir.

15:58 Yes sir. Give me a dollar. On top of that, he's been engaged by companies to travel the world and record videos for productions. He's traveling the world. Amen.

16:20 I don't want a five. I want some money. I want a slide and some money. Somebody say opportunity. Possibility. Some of you haven't been faithful in the thing you're doing right now. That's why God can't open up no opportunities for you. You don't show up to work on time on the job that you got. I feel tension in the room.

16:59 Do well where you are. When I had a good government job, I had a good government job. and the pastor at First Baptist died, and First Baptist Church of Glen Arden voted for me to be the pastor. So I quit. I resigned. That's not, I'm going to use that word. I resigned from my government job. They didn't want me to leave, so they could not believe that I was leaving this great job. I was a manager. I was going to be an SIS. Y'all know what that is? I'm going to make a lot of money. That's what that means. They gave me an opportunity. They couldn't believe I was leaving that job to go and be the pastor of a little small church. They couldn't believe. So here's what they did.

17:51 Check this out. They said, go ahead and try out that job. We're going to hold your job until you come back. So I took a year leave without pay. I took off for a year. And guess what? While I was gone on leave without pay, they invited me back and gave me a raise. And I wasn't even at work. Don't play a hate. Don't get mad. Don't get mad because you go to work every day and ain't nobody giving you no raise. I wasn't even mad they was giving me a raise. Can I get an amen right there? Can somebody celebrate with me? Possibilities. God opens up opportunities for you to do it. Like I think I said earlier already, you think you've been called to do something, but nobody asks you to do it, ain't your time.

18:48 Here's number three. I got to hurry up. I'm acting like I got all day. What was the first one? Number two. Here's number three. Provision. God gives provision. This is Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 6 through 9. Verse 6 of chapter 2. Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me. And I set him a time. Furthermore, I said to the king, this is Nehemiah talking to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah.

19:42 And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy. Y'all missed a great spot right there. He's getting some wood to build the temple. He's getting some wood to build the gates. He's getting the wood for the temple. He's getting some wood for his house. He's going to build a house while he's working. Y'all ain't here when I'm saying that. He's building a house. And the king, verse 8, granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. Then I went to the governors in the regions beyond the river and gave him the king's letters. Now the king has sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

20:37 Look what the king did. The king gave him wood and gave him a chariot, a car. Y'all ain't hear what I'm saying. And horsemen. Gave him transportation, a car, and some wood. Y'all ain't hear what I'm saying to y'all today. When God has a call upon your life, He makes provisions for you to be able to bring it to pass. And I'm here to tell somebody while you've been sitting down, not operating in the gifting that God has given you, He can't make provisions for you. If you ain't doing nothing with what He's already given you, why would He give you more? But God's looking to and fro for people who have been faithful and dedicated and using what He's already given to you. He's looking for some people to take you to the next level of your assignment to reveal his purpose and his passion for you so that he can take you to where he wants you to go. Go on and preach, Pastor. I'm doing the best I can.

21:36 The king gave him a letter for him to pass through regions freely. He gave him a passport. So he could go from one area to the next area. He made it. He gave him what he needed. He gave him provision. Here's number four. Player haters. Where is that at? Let me come over here and preach to the people over here. Player haters is an indication that you're headed in the right direction. Amen. Amen. Amen. I need you to get that. But some of y'all get discouraged because people hate on you.

22:31 People talk about you, make fun of you. Player haters. Player haters are an indication that you are headed in the right direction. Amen. Amen. When the opportunity, when the pastor of First Baptist Church of Glen Arden died, and they were looking at who's going to be the next pastor, they looked amongst the sons of the church, and they narrowed it down. Basically, they narrowed it down to two people, me and another person. And then people started saying stuff. Rumors started flying about me. They said I had gotten a young girl pregnant, which was true. I had gotten a young girl pregnant, Trina Jenkins. I got Trina Jenkins pregnant. but they created a lie to try to get people not to vote for me.

23:29 Don't be shocked or disappointed when people lie on you, hate on you, try to ruin your name, try to get you fired. Don't be shocked. Go ahead, tell your neighbor it goes with the territory. That means the enemy wants to try to do everything in his power to keep you from fulfilling what it is God has given to you to do. Don't be disappointed. Don't be mad. Don't cry. Don't be upset. Don't quit church. Some of y'all quit church prematurely. Because somebody said something about you. Somebody talked about you. Somebody tried to hurt you. It goes with the territory. But guess what? Remind yourself, no weapon formed against me shall cross me. Now here's a string of verses. Chapter 2, verse 10. Chapter 2, verse 19.

24:21 Chapter 4, 1 through 3. Chapter 4, verses 7 through 8. Chapter 6, verses 1 through 8. I'm going to try to read all of these real quick because I want you to see the attack that came against Nehemiah. Verse 10. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. Verse 19.

24:47 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us. and said, what is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king? Here they are laughing, joking, making fun, whatever. Chapter four. But it so happened when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall that he was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? will they complete it in the day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burnt? Now, Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, whatever they built, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.

25:47 That's what people are going to say about you. What you're doing ain't going to last. You'll never achieve or do anything. They said, when I became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Glen Arden at 3311 Brightstreet Road. They said it wouldn't last. I done built two buildings since then. Three buildings, man. Hold up, three buildings. We built out the ministry center. We purchased the empowerment center. We built that out. We built the worship center and we built, y'all excuse me for a second, the community life center. I wish I had somebody. Oh, they said he wouldn't do much. It would never amount to anything. He wouldn't achieve anything. It wouldn't become anything. But guess what? Not only did we build it, it's all paid off. We don't owe nobody nothing. Yes, yes sir, yes sir.

26:44 Thank you for the reason. Somebody look at your name and say, ain't nothing but player haters, player haters. Chapter 6, verses 1 through 8, chapter 6. Now it happened when Samballi, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no breaks left in it, though at that time I had not hung the doors of the gates, that Samballi and Geshem sent to me saying, come let us meet together they won't meet with you now among the villages in the plain of Ono but they thought to do me harm so I sent messages to them saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you? But they sent me this message four times.

27:43 And I answered them in the same manner. Then Samballot sent his servants to me as before the fifth time with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, it is reported among the nations. and Geshem says that you and the Jews plan to rebel. Therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall that you may be their king. And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem saying, there is a king in Judah. Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come therefore and let us consult together. Then I sent to him saying, No. Hold up. Oh, no.

28:31 Oh, no, I'm not coming to Oh, no. Okay, y'all don't get it. Okay. The name of the place they were at was Oh, No. I got to catch y'all up. If y'all had y'all Bible, y'all would be able to catch up with me for just a second. Yeah, it is reported among the nations. Let's see, where did I leave off? Verse 7. Let me read verse 7.

28:58 Verse 8. Then I sent to him saying, no such thing as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart. Don't be shocked when people make up stuff in their heart about you. They are player haters. Player haters is an indication that you're headed in the right direction. Somebody go ahead and tell your neighbor I must be headed in the right direction All these lies being told on me All this stuff they're making up about me All this stuff they're saying about me Oh no! I'm doing what God called me to do somebody look at your neighbor and say thank God I'm doing what God has called me to do look at your neighbor don't allow player haters to make you quit so many people have quit church because of stuff that people in church said about them yeah don't stop do you think the enemy is going to let you go forth and do the thing that God created you to do without trying to stop you from doing it?

30:04 As a matter of fact, I've learned in the course of my 67 years of life, go ahead, lean over, tell your pastor, he don't look 67. Go ahead, tell him. He don't look 67. Yeah, y'all talk, somebody just want to talk about me. It's okay, but oh no, I'm still moving forward. I'm still pressing. The devil will do everything in his power to stop you from walking out what it is God called you to do. Amen.

30:36 Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Okay, my last point. Here's point five. What was the first point? Number two? Number three? Number four? Number five? Partners.

31:00 God will raise up some people to walk alongside you. God will raise up some people who will help you. God will raise up some people who will support you. God will raise up some people. And here's the thing I learned about God. He will put some people in the right place to help you get done what you need to get done. Let me tell you this. I got a few minutes. Let me tell you something that happened when we were building this worship center.

31:31 We were building the worship center. And we just had all kind of issues and challenges and problems. This issue and that issue was going on. But here's what God did. Boy, ooh, it just came to my mind. I wish I had thought about this. I didn't even tell them this at the 8 o'clock service. But I'm glad God brought it to my mind for the 10 o'clock people. we had to get a permit from the county for us to be able to build this building. Of course, we had people who did not want us to build this building. They didn't want us to build the building. And so, look at God.

32:10 Unknown to me, God raised up some partners for us. The county executive was about to leave office. The election had occurred, And a new county executive was coming in. And the county executive at that time was leaving. And so they had all of the stack of permits that needed to be cleared. But the county executive that was leaving said, I'm going to leave that for the next administration to deal with. I'm not going to deal with it. So the person who had the stack had the stacks. And they were walking back to their office. And while they were walking back, one of the pieces of paper fell out of the stack on the floor. And she picked it up and she said, oh, this is First Baptist Church of Bernardi. That's my church. Go ahead and do this.

33:03 Where she at? Is she here? There she is right there. There she is right there. And that's why we are in this building right now.

33:46 All I'm trying to tell you is that God will raise up some people to help you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let me, I gotta, I didn't even read the verse yet. chapter 2 verse 12 so then he says then I rose in the night I and a few men with me I've told no one what was in my what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode that's chapter 2 verse 12 chapter 4 verse 6 so we built the wall and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people had a mind to work. Now, let me close with this. In chapter 3, verse 5, can I read that to you and then I'll be finished. Next to them, the coites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to work, to the work of their Lord. And here's what that means. There was some people who should have been working, but they didn't work. Some of y'all got people who should be helping get the job done, but they ain't doing their part. But all I'm trying to tell you is God will raise up somebody. Amen. Somebody wasn't doing their work for that whole stack of permits to be passed. Somebody didn't do their work, but God raised up somebody. I wish I had the praying crowd with me today.

35:44 God will raise up somebody to see to it that the job gets done. Out of all of the permits that could have fallen out of that stack, the one with the name First Baptist Church of Glenard fell out of that stack. And all I'm trying to tell you is that God has a plan for your life. God has a purpose for your life. God has an assignment for your life. And nothing can stop you from doing what it is that God has assigned for your hands today.