Finish Your Course With Joy - Easter Campmeeting 2017 - 04/15/17

to check out our online courses. Many of you won't won't be able to or couldn't be able to, we wouldn't be able to, move to Baton Rouge to attend school and and that would be my first choice. If we could have you here, if we could have you participating in the classes, in the chapels, in the in the uh church services, in the meetings that go on around here day in and day out, and SBN, I would rather that you were here.

Because there's nothing like bringing yourself into the presence of the Lord and bringing yourself into a locale where you can concentrate for a short period of time on learning the Word of God and applying it to your life. Secondly, if you can't Move here. Then we've made available to you the study of the Word of God through our online courses.

We've made them just as inexpensive as you can possibly uh do them and still do something profitable for the ministry. And uh credit courses are only three hundred and twenty-five dollars, and that's a credit course. Uh that i in normal colleges would cost you anywhere from eleven to fifteen hundred dollars per course for an eight course semester. And uh we give you all sixteen weeks.

of our courses. Every single uh class and of the of that particular course has been taped. And so you it it's just as if you were here sitting in the classroom. And for an audit student, you get the same videos without the homework for one hundred and twenty five dollars. And ladies and gentlemen, that's it. Learning the Bible for a dollar a day for the four months that you have it.

So we've done everything that we can to uh provide you with uh Bible education. We would prefer you to be here. But if you can't take advantage of uh WBC online courses and uh again I'm gonna encourage you, do me a favor. Uh, do the ministry here a favor if you know someone that's called to preach, you know a young person that is not quite sure where their future is headed. And they're a Christian. Give us a year here. Send them here for a year. Let us solidify their faith.

The things that you've been experiencing camp meeting, they'll live in for the next year. And while we can't make them Christian, we can certainly, if you will, uh lead the horse to water. Amen. Amen. Amen. That that's kind of weak, but I'll take it. Acts twenty. Verse seventeen through twenty four.

The Apostle Paul speaking here and the narrative describing the journey. of the Apostle Paul at the tail end of his third missionary journey. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church And when they were come to him he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.

me serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse twenty two And now behold. I go bound in the Spirit. Take note of that clause. I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem.

Not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. The Holy Ghost will show us things to come. But none of these things move me. Underline it, underscore it, highlight it, however it gets to your mind. None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself. Why, Paul? So that I might finish my course. With joy. Not just finish.

Not just complete it, not just barely hanging on, not just hoping that God will come back real soon, but finish my course and with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And I want to minister this morning, finish your course

Yes, the Fivefold Ministry, and we'll talk about that this morning. The Five Fold Ministry has a deaf definitive, specific role. But I need you to see that your role Where God has placed you, where God has planted you, what God is doing in you. Is of the most vital importance. Many of you No one will ever know your name, and that has to be okay with you.

As you give us understanding. In Jesus' name we pray it. Amen. And amen. I said last night that From the book of Hebrews, chapter twelve and verse one, we're called to run a race.

We're to run the race. I like the idea that it's not walk the race, but it's run the race. That means there has to be an impetus, there has to be an emergency in your spirit, there has to be a ongoing effort. We cannot, as the body of Christ, whatever our role is, wherever we are planted, whatever God has chosen us to do, we can't sit idle by and watch others run. We're called to run the race.

And we're called also out of Hebrews twelve and one. Well let me just read it to you. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us listen now, lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. So first of all, we have to learn how to lay aside the weight and the sin that does so easily Come on now. That does so easily beset my neighbor.

That does so easily beset all those people I've been critical about. That ha does so easily beset you and I. I'm a Christian first before I'm a teacher, before I'm a pastor, before I'm a professor. I'm traveling through the same process of being a Christian that you are. My job is to help you understand how to live for God, but I can't I can't do that if I'm not experiencing that myself. I'm a Christian first, I'm a pastor last.

I'm a believer first and the process is not the not any different. If there's any difference between the fivefold ministry and the laity relative to relationship with God. It's simply that if you're a member of the fivefold laity or fivefold ministry, you just put a bullseye on your chest. And the devil is looking and firing. I wish somebody would shout Amen. But the Bible says that we have to lay aside every weight, the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with Run with

Run with that means endurance. That means that I'm not giving out. I'm not giving in. I've got to run this race. I've got to be energetic. That's not the word I really want, but uh I've got to be I've got to be in movement. I need to be actively pursuing this race that God has set before me, and that's the point I want to make.

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We're called to run, but we don't set the course. Now you need to think about that. In a cross country race, runners show up, but there's the officials that set the course. They tell the runners Ladies and gentlemen, if all of us just run wherever we think we need to run, if we think we need to go here and do this and do that, and none of us let God set our course

Then our running is in vain. You can run all day, you can run all night, but unless you let God set the course. And I tell you that the moment Even before you were born. Even before you were born in the mind of God, that course was already designated. And God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. He will never be sorry about choosing you. you and the course that He has for you.

He would never change his mind. We may falter, we may get off track, we may struggle to stay on the course, but that doesn't change what God has already decided. So that which God before you were born, He put talents, abilities. On the inside of you you are fearfully and wondrously made. And the tapestry of your being he wove you together.

Not so that you could choose to do with whatever it is that you found there, what you want to do, but so that you can submit it to God. And the first step, ladies and gentlemen, is getting saved. Becoming a born again believer. That's the key that unlocks the door to your potential.

That's the key getting saved is the is the beginning of what God uh begins to pour into you. And now instead of using your talents and your abilities for all the things that that you want to use them for, you can begin to find the perfect, good, and acceptable will of God. But you know, sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, we make a huge mistake in that we we we we we don't see what God is doing in us and and we cast about and we move about and we run about looking

For the will of God in our lives. And I want to help you with that this morning. First of all, let me make it plain whether you are Laity, and I don't like that term, but you understand it, whether you're a member of the fivefold ministry or you're a member of the body of Christ that's not called into full time ministry, you have one one, you have one function.

And this is what your life needs to be all about. And I can take it from the very last verse of our text this morning. Paul said that I'm gonna finish my course with joy, and here's where I'm going first. Last shall be first. And the ministry Which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify of the gospel of the grace of God. Now that's our job. From the oldest to the youngest, from the least to the greatest, our job is to testify.

Our job is to proclaim, our job is to declare, our job is to live out in front of the world the fact that there's a risen Jesus that can save and change and alter what we are. One that is worthy of love, worthy of our worship. Worthy of adoration, worthy of our time, worthy of our money, worthy of all that I am. I'm bought with a price. I just want you to know I have one, I have one function in this life.

Since he saved me and brought me out of drug addiction and alcoholism, I have one function: to glorify him.

Hallelujah. Let them hear it loud and clear. Let them know that you know, that you know, that you know, that you know.

That Jesus is alive and well. Ah, he's not connected to a rabbit on a Sunday morning. He's connected to an empty tomb. I'm not looking for eggs. I'm looking for angels. Come on somebody. I'm looking for a move of the Holy Ghost. This is not just tradition to me. This is my life. Hallelujah. I came to testify. I came to testify. I came to testify. of the grace of God and if you try to shut me up and sit me down I might sit still for a moment but there's something on the inside of me

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Give me somebody that's not ashamed. Give me somebody that won't be still. Give me somebody that won't be quiet.

Now I want you to sit for just a minute but don't lose your shout. What I wanted has already happened. What I prayed for has already occurred. And you can't get better than what the Holy Ghost does. I came to tell you this morning that when you set out to live for God, In view of the message of the cross, you become a viable entity in the world today. And if you're a preacher

Preaching the message of the cross. You're training the body of Christ to get ready for the last day. I believe God's people are going to do exploits. I believe the baptism with the Holy Ghost is going to run the course of this world. I believe people that name the name of Jesus are going to depart from iniquity and get filled up with the power of God. But I came to tell you that there'll be a bullseye on your chest.

And you gotta stay, listen, Paul said it. I know that where I'm headed, there coming bonds, there's coming afflictions. And even if they take my life. These things, they don't move me! You can't shake me from my truth. You can't steal away my truth. You can't take away my cross. You can't take away my Holy Ghost. You can't