Mind Your Business - Bishop Dale C. Bronner
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00:00 We hope that you enjoyed that message. Don't forget to like and subscribe and
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00:09 And if you want to partner with us, click the "Give Now" button. Thank you for what
00:15 you do. I'm so glad that you're in the house today. So glad that you're joining
00:20 us by live stream today. I'm so excited about what God is doing, what he has in
00:24 store for each of us. Well, our foundational text today comes from St.
00:30 John chapter 21 verses 18 through 23 in the New Living Translation. Notice there
00:38 these words as Jesus speaks. He says, "I tell you the truth, when you were young
00:43 you were able to do as you liked. You dressed yourself and went wherever you
00:49 wanted to go, but when you're old you will stretch out your hand and others
00:54 will dress you and take you where you don't want to go. Jesus said this to let
00:59 them know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, 'Follow
01:06 me.' Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved, the one
01:15 who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, 'Lord, who will betray
01:22 you?' Peter asked Jesus, 'What about him, Lord?' Jesus replied, 'If you want him to
01:31 remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.' So the
01:40 rumor spread among the community of believers that this disciple wouldn't
01:44 die, but that isn't what Jesus said at all. He only said, 'If I want him to
01:51 remain alive until I return, what is that to you?' I'm talking today from the
01:57 subject simply, 'Mind your business.' Mind your business. I know that there are times
02:06 that you've wanted to tell people that in a very polite and respectful way, to
02:10 mind your business. Just mind your business. This is not anybody else's
02:16 business, it has to do with minding your business. The many times that I've been
02:21 on airplanes and they will say to us, 'To put on your own oxygen mask first before
02:29 assisting others.' Because if you try to help somebody, if you run out of oxygen
02:34 yourself, then your thoughts become incoherent and you can't help others
02:39 until you have first helped yourself. Put your own oxygen mask on first before you
02:46 try to assist anybody in putting theirs on. They're saying basically, 'Mind your
02:51 own business first.' Mind your business. Mind your business. I mean, what in the
02:58 world happens if you're driving down the road of life and if you didn't stay in
03:04 your lane, you're on your cell phone, you're adjusting the radio, and you are
03:09 drifting out of your lane. Can you imagine the amount of chaos that would
03:14 happen on our streets when we don't mind our business? And here Jesus was talking
03:22 about a situation and he was basically telling Peter, 'Listen, this is
03:26 my disciple. What is it to you? That's none of your business, Peter. This is
03:29 between me and this guy. This is none of your business. Stay in your lane.' And a
03:35 lot of people get upset on their jobs because somebody else who is not their
03:40 supervisor is standing around telling them how to do their job. Everybody's got
03:45 an opinion. People in the stands trying to tell the coach how to coach the team
03:50 and yet they are not the coach. And the message is just mind your business
03:56 because when you're minding somebody else's business it means that you're not
04:00 minding your own business. So I just love it that Jesus is so real that he has to
04:09 tell, he had to check Peter. Peter is condemnations. He'll just blur it
04:14 out and say something, but Jesus was not a wuss. Jesus had enough grace and truth
04:21 in him with dignity to look at Peter and essentially say, 'Listen, if I want him to
04:27 live forever, what's that to you, Peter?' He was telling him very politely, 'Peter,
04:32 it's none of your business. Mind your business.' Look at somebody real nicely
04:37 now. Smile at them and just tell them, 'Mind your business.' No offense but mind
04:45 your business. Mind your business. When Jesus was 12 years old he was out doing
04:53 what God called him to do. He was 12 but he was still under the tutelage of his
04:58 mother and his father and that they had left him and didn't realize that Jesus
05:04 was not with them. They assumed that Jesus was with the family and he was not.
05:10 He was back there where they left him actually doing his daddy's business and
05:16 so Jesus told them in Luke chapter 2 in verse 49 notice he said, he said to them,
05:21 'Why do you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?'
05:28 Jesus was a very wise, precocious 12 year old. Here he is saying that, 'You know,
05:35 listen, I know who my father is. I know what my father's business is and I'm
05:39 sent here to do my father's business. I'm not here to do my own business. I'm here
05:45 on assignment. I'm here to do my father's business.' He says, 'I'm doing my father's
05:50 business.' But his mama checked him and she said, 'Listen, you're 12 years old. You're
05:53 under our tutelage now. You're gonna stay with us. Don't you ever give us
05:58 another scare like that.' And the Bible said from that time until the time he
06:01 was released he was subject to his, to his parents, to his mother and his father.
06:05 But we have to mind our own business. I love a quote from Paolo Coelho which
06:14 simply says, 'Don't waste your time with explanations. People only hear what they
06:20 want to hear. People only hear what they want to hear.' You can tell people things
06:26 that you want to all of your, all that you want. But people will simply
06:31 interpret what you say. They will have their own opinion about whatever it is
06:37 that you say. There's another saying that says that a man convinced against his
06:42 will is of the same opinion still. So why get yourself all flustered by trying to
06:50 talk somebody else out of something and they won't listen to you? I want you to
06:54 check it out in this little video clip. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand
06:58 words. Take a look.
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07:47 Sometimes we just have to mind our business because you try to tell some
07:50 people that they don't listen and you let somebody else come into your lane and
07:54 try to tell you how to do it. It'll get you all jacked up. You got to mind your
08:00 business, mind your business, mind your business. I love something that Lou Holtz
08:04 said. He says never tell your problems to anyone. He said 20% of the people don't
08:10 care and the other 80% are glad that you have them. So you have to be very, very
08:16 careful about who you share problems with because 20% of the people don't
08:23 care and 80% of the other ones actually are glad that you have them. But I would
08:29 say to you that when you do have problems there are some trustworthy,
08:34 confidential people that you can actually talk to but share your problems
08:39 with people who number one you can trust. Share your problems with people who love
08:46 you. Share your problems with people who will empathize with you without judgment.
08:53 Share your problems with people who have a who have good sense, who have good
08:58 wisdom. Share your problems with people who want the best for you. Share your
09:05 problem with people who want the best for you. People that you can trust, people
09:08 who love you, who will empathize with you without judgment, who have good sense and
09:13 who want the best for you. I'm just here to remind you that it's a full-time job
09:20 just for us to be able to manage our own affairs. A full-time job. I don't know
09:27 about you but I don't have time to be trying to run everybody else's life,
09:31 their business, their marriage, their relationship, what they do with their
09:34 children. I want to help people but I don't want to help people who don't want
09:38 to be helped because the truth of the matter is is that you really cannot help
09:42 people who are not ready to be helped. It is only when the person is honestly
09:48 ready to be helped that you have the capacity to help them. Save yourself some
09:54 frustration and mind your business. Now if God has assigned them to you, put them
10:01 in your path, listen to God, listen to God and share it and let lead the results to
10:07 him. Just listen and trust God. First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 11 and 12
10:13 tells us this, "Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business
10:22 and working with your hands just as we instructed you before. Then people who
10:28 are not believers will respect the way you live and you will not need to
10:33 depend on others." Listen, he said take care of your business. Make it your goal to
10:38 live a quiet life, minding your own business, not meddling in other folks
10:43 business, minding your own business and working with your own hands. We used to
10:49 have a song years ago that used to say, "You got six months to sweep around your
10:55 own front door and six months to leave other people's alone." Mind your business,
11:02 mind your business, mind your business, work with your own hands and mind your
11:08 own business. My question to you today is this, is what has God called you to do?
11:16 What does he call you to do? Because one of the things that you really don't want
11:21 to do is to leave undone what God has assigned to your life to do. You are here
11:29 to fulfill a destiny. Destiny is calling you, destiny is calling you. There's an
11:35 assignment, there's a destiny that you're called to fulfill and you're gonna have
11:39 to give an account to God as to what you did about what he called you to do, what
11:45 he told you to do, what you were born to do. What has God called you to do? Now
11:52 what he's called you to do is different perhaps than what he's called me to do. I
11:56 understand that and I just want to mind my business and stay in my lane so that
12:00 I can run my course. I've got to run my course, not yours. I've got to run my race,
12:06 not yours. Run your own race, run your own race. You can cheer for somebody else
12:15 who's running their race, celebrate them, but run your own race, run your own race.
12:23 Finish your course, keep the faith of what God has given you to do because all
12:29 of our assignments are different. If you'll notice in 1st Corinthians chapter
12:33 12 verse 4 through 6, notice this. There are different kinds of gifts but they
12:39 are all from the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve but the same
12:47 Lord to serve and there are different ways that God works through people but
12:53 the same God. God works in all of us, in everything we do and I want you to
13:02 understand this that God's not going to judge you based on someone else's call.
13:06 Our callings are different. Our consecrations are different. What the
13:15 consecration that goes with my call is different than what God may call you to
13:18 do. I've done a lot of fasting over the course of my life, a lot of praying. God
13:22 may not call you to do that. That's a part of my consecration, of what I'm
13:26 called to do. Our consecrations are different. Our gifts are different. Our
13:32 methodologies are different. People that teach and preach, you know some of us do
13:38 it with organs behind us and got things tuning up and other people are very
13:43 cerebral and they walk through in a very conversational kind of discourse as they
13:49 share because our methodologies are different. Our administrations are
13:53 different. Our assignments are different. Our timelines are different. Don't judge
14:00 yourself based on somebody else's timeline, how long it has taken them to
14:04 do something. Mind your own business. You've got a different timeline. The
14:10 context with which you do what you do is different and so what God called me to
14:16 do in the city of Atlanta is different than operating in a small town in in
14:21 Mississippi, in in in Louisiana, in South Carolina or North Carolina or in in Ohio
14:29 in in in Illinois. The context is different. So God will give you different
14:35 gifts and and capacities and methodologies based on where you are. If
14:41 you're in Europe, if you're in Asia, if you're in Africa, if you're in South
14:44 America, North America, every context is different and you have to know the
14:49 culture and realize our gifts are different. Our anointings are
14:55 different. Our grace is different. Our timelines are different. Our contexts are
15:01 different and just remember this, it's all the same God even though we have
15:07 different callings and different operations of the gifts that God has
15:11 given to each of us, we've got the same God. We're still all serving the same God.
15:18 It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Asian or Latino, it's still
15:24 the same God that created us in great variety and diversity and with different
15:31 language and different accents and different appetites for foods and
15:35 different ways of doing things. It's not just one way and that's why we learn
15:41 from each other. And listen, if we would spend more time loving each other
15:46 instead of judging one another for how they do something according to the gift
15:51 that God gave them, let's celebrate one another and the God that we are all
15:56 called to serve but just remember mind your business, mind your business. It's
16:03 the same God but different gifts and sometimes we might wonder, look at
16:08 somebody and say, "Well, look at so-and-so over there. Why do they do this? Why are
16:11 they doing this that way? If that were my child, I would do this, that, and the other."
16:14 Listen, to whom much is given, much is also required. Never forget that. God will
16:20 judge you based on what has been given to you. Notice the words of Jesus in Luke
16:25 chapter 12 and verse 48, "But someone who does not know and then does something
16:32 wrong will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be
16:38 required in return. And when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will
16:45 be required." So you see, you can't judge me if I was not given as much as you or
16:51 vice versa. So to whom much is given, much is required. That's why God is the judge
16:57 of us all and our responsibility is to love people because we don't understand
17:02 their context. I mean, there are certain things that we permit from a two-year-old
17:08 because they lack understanding, they lack judgment, they don't know any better.
17:12 But by a certain age, you ought to know better. And so you have to be corrective
17:20 while we're young as we're being taught because we are somebody else's business
17:25 until we can take responsibility for our own lives. We have to be responsible in
17:32 helping them to sharpen their own discernment. But I've seen people over
17:39 the years look at somebody else's life and judge them based on what they have,
17:44 running somebody else's business, that knows all the ways in somebody else's
17:50 business, but you just mind your own business. Mind your own business. You have
17:54 to sometimes ask God, "Lord, help me to be able to mind my own business." You know,
18:01 you look at somebody else what they have and then you look at what you have and
18:04 then you get jealous of what somebody else has. Jealousy is the result of
18:09 counting somebody else's blessings more than you're counting your own. You don't
18:15 know what's going wrong with them. You know, everybody has issues that's going
18:17 wrong with them. There's something that you're admiring about somebody that you
18:21 might consider to be pretty or handsome, but they've got an insecurity. There's
18:24 something about their own skin that they don't like. There's something about their
18:26 teeth that they don't like. Something about their hair. Something about their
18:28 eyes. They've got something about them that they are insecure about and they're
18:33 wishing that they had this like someone else. Jealousy is nothing more than
18:38 counting the blessing of someone else more than you're counting your own. What
18:44 difference does it make to me what God blesses somebody else with as long as he
18:49 gives me enough to be able to support my own life? Mind your business. Just mind
18:54 your business. It's not a concern to me how much money Elon Musk
18:59 has or you know the guy who owns Facebook. That's none of my
19:04 business. That is none of my business. They're not going to just write us a
19:09 check and pay all of our bills. I don't want to be guilty of counting somebody
19:15 else's blessings more than I have counted what God has done for me.
19:20 Remember, give us this day our daily bread. As long as I've got my daily bread,
19:27 God, I thank you. Lord, I thank you. Thank you for peace of mind to be able to rest
19:33 when I get in my bed at night. Thank you, God. Thank you for enough reason and
19:38 wisdom and to be in my right mind to serve you, to be able to take care of my
19:43 bills and to do what I need to do when I need to do it. Lord, I thank you. I thank
19:49 you. I remember Gideon as he was leading an army. As you know, he started off with
19:56 about 32,000 people and God says, "You got too many. You have absolutely too many."
20:01 And he gave him a test, you know, and he said, "Tell all of the scared men to go
20:06 home." You know that 22,000 men left and then there were 10,000
20:15 left. God says, "You still got too many." And he says, "Take them down to the
20:18 water and tell them to drink and those that lap the water up like a dog, send
20:24 those home and the ones that bring the water up with their hand because they
20:28 are sober, they are vigilant." He says, "Those are the ones that I'm going to use."
20:32 And so what started out with an army of 32,000 now was reduced down to 300.
20:38 Gideon's 300. 300. Now he's got 300 people. They are fighting against the
20:44 Midianites. You know how big the Midianite army is? 135,000 in their army.
20:52 135,000 Midianites against 300. Mind your business. Now you can imagine how
21:00 those 300 were looking at an army of 135,000 and says, "God, are you crazy? Have
21:05 you lost your mind?" Really God? Does it not seem that we are a bit outnumbered
21:10 here? God knows when it looks like the odds are stacked against you, when you
21:16 don't have the education, when you don't have the background, when you don't have
21:19 the pedigree. God is God. He is your source and he does not want you to take
21:25 your refuge in all of the external accoutrements of what we get and gather
21:31 and add to ourselves. So just mind your business. You mind your business and let
21:36 God mind his. Miracles are God's business. Deliverance is God's business. Salvation
21:41 is God's business. So if God is going to protect you from an enemy that is coming
21:45 against you, if he's going to protect your household when people are wishing
21:49 harm on you, that's God's business. Let God be God. And I want you to notice what
21:56 was the real secret to those 300 men being able to conquer 135,000. I want you
22:04 to notice Judges chapter 7 and verse 21, "And every man stood in his place all
22:11 around the camp and the whole army ran and cried out and fled." I want you to see
22:18 that every man stood in his place. Every man stood in his place. They weren't in
22:23 somebody else's place. They stood in the place that was assigned to them. They
22:28 handled their responsibility. They were in their own place. That shows you the
22:33 power of 300 people on one accord who are in their place as opposed to trying
22:40 to run somebody else's business and to tell God how to do things. And I know
22:44 people who want to tell God how to do it, when to do it, how much to do it, and
22:48 and all of that, and who to use. Let God be God. Let God be God. I want to show you
22:55 even in the Bible how Jesus stayed in his own lane. He didn't try to do God's
23:02 job. He stayed in his own lane. Notice in Mark chapter 10 verse 35 through 40 in
23:08 the New Living Translation, notice, "Then James and John the sons of Zebedee came
23:13 over and spoke to him. 'Teacher,' they said, 'we want you to do us a favor.' 'What is
23:20 your request?' he asked. They replied, 'When you sit on your glorious throne, we want
23:27 to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your
23:31 left.' But Jesus said to them, 'You don't know what you're asking. Are you able to
23:37 drink from the bitter cup of suffering that I'm about to drink? Are you able to
23:41 be baptized with the baptism of suffering that I must be baptized with?'
23:45 'Oh yes,' they replied, 'we are able.' Then Jesus told them, 'You will indeed drink
23:51 from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering, but I have no
23:57 right to say who will sit on my right or on my left. God has prepared those places
24:02 for the ones he has chosen.'" Notice Jesus said that's God's business. He said, "I
24:07 don't have a right." He said, "You're asking me about something that is God's
24:10 business." Jesus was showing us that he had enough wisdom to stay in his lane.
24:16 He's like, "I'm not gonna be God to you. I'm his son. I'm on assignment. I'm under
24:21 his authority. I operate under the auspices of God who is in heaven and
24:26 sits on the throne." And here, now these boys, the sons of Zebedee, were asking
24:31 Jesus, "Give us permission to sit one on your left hand and one on your right
24:35 hand." They were trying to come in between Jesus and God. Jesus is seated at the
24:39 right hand of the Father. One of them was asking to be on the left. That's God's
24:43 seat. Can you imagine what happens when we try to get out of our place? Your
24:49 victory comes when everybody is doing what they ought to do, minding their
24:54 business and their responsibility that is given so that the whole shebang, the
25:01 whole operation works well together. You're here in this church and this is
25:07 not working because of one man. There are people that are working that are taking
25:12 care of children right now. There are folks that help people in the
25:16 parking lot. There are ushers that assist people in seating. There are musicians.
25:20 There are singers here. There are tech people that help with microphones and
25:24 cameras and sound equipment. This is not a one-man show and the only reason
25:30 that it works is because everybody is in their place. There is a power that comes
25:37 to any organization when everybody is in their place, minding their business. And
25:46 whenever you're busy minding somebody else's business, it means that you're
25:50 leaving something that you ought to be doing undone. I want you to think about
25:54 that. Do you really have the time to be running other folks business? You better
26:00 take care of your own husband. You better take care of your own wife. You better
26:03 take care of your own children. It's a full-time job just handling what God has
26:08 given us to do. God alone is God and there are some things that are reserved
26:13 for God to know himself. I love it in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter
26:19 29 and verse 29. Notice what it says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God."
26:24 Now I know some busybodies that want to know everything that's going on. They
26:28 want to know the secrets. Oh, they want the gossip. They want the juicy stuff. But
26:32 notice this, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed
26:39 belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow all the words of this
26:45 law." See, they're saying that there's some things that are reserved for God
26:48 himself. They're the secret things that he has chosen not to reveal. But what
26:53 he chooses to reveal, that belongs to us. It belongs to our children. If he hasn't
26:58 revealed it to you, mind your business. Mind your business. Well, I wonder when
27:03 Jesus is coming back. You know, things are getting bad in the world. I don't know
27:06 what this world is coming to. I wonder when Jesus is coming back. Mind your
27:12 business. You just do what you're supposed to do. Live ready. Live with
27:18 readiness. Live ready. Mind your business. Every man in his place, every woman in
27:24 her place, doing the assignment that God has given you to do so that everything
27:30 flows together and the synergy that is created because every person is in their
27:37 place and it causes the blessings of God to come. Whenever people are gathered
27:43 together in unity, there the blessing is commanded. You don't even have to ask
27:46 God for the blessing. The blessing is commanded on you. You read your Bible,
27:51 Psalm 133. The blessing is commanded. How good and pleasant it is for brethren to
27:56 dwell together in unity. And it talks about it coming on the beard and down
28:00 the garment. It says, "For there the blessing is commanded." It's commanded
28:04 because of unity. Everybody in their place doing what God has called them to
28:09 do. I've had so many people ask me, you know, when is the Lord coming
28:14 again? Has the Lord ever shared this with you when he's coming again? That's
28:18 his business. That's not my business. Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 24 and
28:22 verse 36, "However, no one, no one, no one knows the day or hour when these things
28:29 will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the
28:34 Father knows." Jesus said, "Listen, there's something I don't even know. The angels
28:39 don't know. You know you don't know. So why would you stand around
28:43 pontificating? Well it seemed like to me that you know they ain't about to come to
28:47 an end here." But Jesus did give us some signs and he says that when you hear of
28:51 wars and and rumors of wars and and pestilence and disease and and all kinds
28:57 of aberrant lifestyles, when you start hearing all of these things, it is almost
29:02 as though the earth is in in labor. It's like you said birthing because as God's
29:09 kingdom comes, it has to be birthed. You have to be born into God's kingdom in
29:14 the same way that we have to be born again. When the timing of God's kingdom
29:18 comes on the earth, there is a birthing. So the earth becomes like a woman who is
29:24 in travail. She's in childbirth and her body is bearing down with contractions
29:30 and all of the evils and the wars and the pestilence, it is another contraction
29:36 that is coming down on the body for the birthing of the kingdom of God. The whole
29:42 earth, the Bible says, it is groaning for the manifestations of the children of
29:47 God, the sons and the daughters of God. So he has said that you'll know the season
29:52 of the timing of when God is going to do some things and that's why you've got to
29:56 live ready. You've got to live ready. You've got to live ready. Mind your
30:00 business and live ready because we're in the season. We're in the season of it. He
30:05 says nobody will know the day but he says there are some signs of the time so
30:10 you'll know the season of it when things begin to become strange to us and my God
30:16 are they not strange. But all of this is a reminder that there's only one God and
30:25 you are not him. I'm not him. One of the greatest things that we can do is to let
30:32 God be God, is to give God the glory. Mind your business. Look at somebody, just
30:40 remind them again. Mind your business. Be kind about it.
30:45 Smile when you tell them. Tell somebody on the other side. Mind your business.
30:50 Mind your business. I would say this to you, stay in your lane and don't try to
30:59 play God in people's lives. Stay in your lane and don't try to be God in people's
31:08 lives. I mean yeah we're supposed to help God and we're supposed to help people
31:12 but be careful about playing the role of God for other people because here's what
31:18 is what will happen. The first time that you give somebody something for free you
31:22 create appreciation and they'll appreciate you. They'll be like "oh that was so nice,
31:26 he's so nice, that was so nice of you." But the second time that you give somebody
31:31 something for free you create anticipation. "You ain't got nothing for
31:35 me today? You gave me some last time, you got nothing for me today?" The third time
31:39 you give somebody something for free you create expectation. Expectation. "Hey, hey,
31:45 I mean did I do something wrong? You don't have anything for me now?" The
31:49 fourth time you give somebody something for free you create entitlement. "You
31:54 normally always bring me something. Where my stuff? You bring me
31:59 something to eat this time?" Entitlement. The fifth time you give somebody
32:04 something for free you create dependency. You create dependency. And the sixth time
32:11 you don't give somebody something for free you create resentment and hatred. If
32:17 you keep on doing stuff for people they'll start expecting you to do it,
32:21 they'll have an anticipation of it, an expectancy of it, an entitlement
32:26 of it, a dependency on it, and then if you don't do it they'll have a resentment
32:29 and a hatred against you. They will resent you because of what you didn't do
32:36 because you used to do it all the time. Don't try to play God in the lives of
32:41 people. You are not their source, God is their source. You do what God tells you
32:46 to do but don't try to replace God in a person's life. We don't have an endless
32:50 supply, God does. And that's why you can't keep on doing it and the goal is not to
32:55 make people dependent on you, it's to ultimately make people dependent on Him.
33:00 Make them dependent on Him. Children are born into the world and they are
33:05 dependent on their parents and we enjoy their being dependent on us for a season
33:11 and then we can't wait until we are empty nesters, then when we get them off
33:15 of our payroll and then they are independent but our job is not done
33:21 when our children are independent of us, our job is not done until we have gotten
33:26 them then dependent on God. It goes from dependent to independent to then
33:33 dependent upon God but we are not God to the people. We work for God, we serve God.
33:40 Let God be God. Isn't it interesting that when the Lord went through Egypt
33:49 killing all of the firstborn in every household that did not have the blood of
33:57 the Lamb over the doorpost. God went through and and killed the firstborn of
34:06 everybody in the land of Egypt who did not have the blood and only thing that
34:11 God was looking for as He passed by was for the blood of the Lamb. It was
34:16 no concern of His about whether the two people in there were married or whether
34:21 they were shacking, how long they've been together, whether they had had sex
34:25 outside of marriage. He didn't ask any of those questions, that was none of His
34:29 concern. God's question was is there blood over the door of this house
34:34 because the blood covers, the blood covers. He was just looking for the blood.
34:39 If your life has become filled with sin and moral profligacy, He's not looking
34:45 for all of the intricacies, He doesn't want all of the detail, well how old was
34:49 she, how old was he, how many times did you do, He's not interested in all of
34:53 that, He's looking for the blood. Are you covered in the blood, are you covered in
34:58 the blood? He was looking for every household to see whether there was blood
35:02 on the house. Has the blood been claimed over this house? Is Jesus Lord of this
35:08 place, has the blood of the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world,
35:13 is this house covered by the blood? My God I'm telling you, you have to start
35:19 praying for your children, you have to start believing for everything in your
35:23 house, your mama, your daddy, your son, your daughter, your niece, your nephews,
35:27 your grandchildren, everything that is connected to you, you better start
35:30 pleading the blood, you better plead the blood, the blood, the blood, it is your
35:34 business to plead the blood, everything in your house, everything in your house
35:38 as Joshua said, as for me and my household, we shall serve the Lord, that
35:45 is your business, your family is your business, plead the blood because when
35:49 God comes, when He comes in judgment, He's coming looking for the blood, the blood
35:55 blots out, the blood cancels, the blood does away, the blood washes thoroughly
36:00 clear and clean, it's there's a power in the blood and I'm so thankful for the
36:06 power of the blood, but you go back and you read that story in Exodus chapter 12
36:10 that was the blood of the Lamb that saved every household, He would pass by
36:16 that, the death angel would pass by if they saw the blood of the Lamb on that
36:22 house and it is the same that God does for us today, He declared in Scripture in
36:27 Michael chapter 7 and verse 19 that He would cast our sins into the depths
36:32 of the sea, so God says I'll bury your sins in the ocean, well folks there's no
36:37 marker, there will be no grave marker, nobody will be able to come back
36:41 to there and say yeah the sin was here, it's in the depths of the sea,
36:45 He won't leave a marker, but I want you to realize this, minding your
36:51 business is not an excuse to be apathetic, let me say that again, minding
36:57 your business is not an excuse to be apathetic toward other people, we are not
37:03 called to be apathetic and say well you want to go to hell just go on, no it
37:07 ought to bother you, it ought to bother you, we're called to be compassionate,
37:12 not apathetic toward people, minding your business is not an excuse to be
37:17 apathetic toward other people. You remember Jesus sharing in in Matthew
37:25 chapter 25 that when I was naked you didn't clothe me, I was sick and you
37:30 didn't visit me, and I was in prison and you didn't come in to me, and so I
37:35 was hungry and you didn't feed me, and they said Jesus when did you see, when
37:38 did we see you in any of these conditions, He says when you didn't do
37:41 this to the least of those brethren, you failed to do it to me, so you see
37:47 there are there are parts of our compassion ministry, assignment that we
37:52 have as Christians that you can't just be selfish, this is never a license,
37:57 minding your business is not a license to be selfish, it is not a license to be
38:02 apathetic and not care what happens to other people, God loves people and God
38:08 uses us to help people, but mind your business but also be aware that
38:15 people are our mission field, you mind your business but also be aware that
38:22 people are our mission field, people are our mission field, people are my mission
38:29 field, people are your mission field, your mission field is not working tinkering
38:35 with with an electronic device, your mission field is people ultimately, your
38:41 mission field is people, people need God but people also need people, people need
38:49 God but people also need people, in Galatians chapter 6 notice verse 1 and 2
38:55 dear brothers and sisters if another believer is overcome by sin, he doesn't
39:02 say mind your business there does he, he says you who are godly should gently and
39:07 humbly help that person back on to the right path and be careful not to fall
39:15 into the same temptation yourself, he said don't think you're too high-minded
39:19 above that because you could mess yourself up and he says share each other's
39:23 burdens and in this way obey the law of Christ, that doesn't sound like you're
39:29 supposed to be apathetic and not care about what happens to other people,
39:32 notice he says dear brothers and sisters if another believer is overcome by sin
39:37 if they fall, if they backslide, you who are godly, those of you that are
39:42 mature in God should gently and humbly help that person back on to the right
39:48 path, don't go running with a Bible in your hand and beating them over the head
39:53 with the scriptures, go back and love them, humbly and gently helping that
39:59 person back on to the right path of life because we have a mandate from God to be
40:05 merciful and to aid other people in their welfare of where they are. I
40:11 remember very distinctly back in July of 2018, the place was Northern Thailand and
40:19 there a dozen boys on a soccer team got stuck in a flooded cave in Northern
40:27 Thailand there with their coach and we couldn't just, I mean the television
40:33 stations were on these boys that were trapped in this cave for 17 days, 17
40:41 days. We watched riveted to our televisions and holding our breath as it
40:48 were until those boys were found and located and then extricated from a
40:52 flooded cave and it was a very delicate operation that took a whole lot of
40:57 people caring, they couldn't just say well that's not a, that's none of my
41:01 business, those are not my children, but they're all, they're all our children.
41:05 There were a hundred divers or more that were a part of that rescue
41:08 operation, scores of other rescue workers, there were representations from a hundred
41:14 governmental agencies, there were 900 police officers that were a part of that,
41:19 there were 2,000 soldiers that were a part of that rescue operation and every
41:25 child, every little boy that was stuck in that cave had to be sedated and put on a
41:30 stretcher and pass from the hands of one soldier, one diver to another, going from
41:35 one person to another person to another person to finally safe them, safely get
41:40 them up out of a flooded cave and I'm here to tell you today that our world
41:45 is like that flooded cave and we need a whole team of people locking arms and
41:50 hands and pooling their resources to help get us up out of that, it's not just
41:55 one entity that's going to get, there were more than a hundred governmental
42:00 agencies that had to come together, there were tons of divers that had gone down
42:06 into that, that were a part of that and they they passed a child from one person
42:10 to another to another to another to another going through hundreds of hands
42:15 just trying to get out of a cave, they needed a hand to get out of a place
42:21 where they were stuck and there are some times that we get stuck in life and and
42:25 it takes a global effort, it takes the prayers of this person, it takes somebody
42:29 being able to provide employment here, it takes doctors and medicine and treatment
42:33 and therapy and all kinds of things, it takes everything that we've got, we've
42:38 got to fight with everything that we've got, we need people to be able as we're
42:41 getting them up out of this ditch to be able to help them to know how to operate
42:45 their finances and how to organize a home and how to how to pull themselves
42:49 together, it's a whole community effort so we cannot afford to just be apathetic
42:56 and say but that doesn't concern me, it's not my child. Those Thai children were
43:04 not related to me but their story gripped my heart. I began to pray there,
43:12 said God give them wisdom, show them how to do this, show them how to do this, show
43:18 them how to do this. My children were not in the cave but someone else's children
43:23 were in the cave. My heart broke for those parents whose children were in
43:28 that cave. Just remember that God needs people to help people. People need God,
43:36 people also need people and that's why God connects us to community. God
43:43 connects us to community. Mind your business, mind the business of your
43:49 community. The old folks used to say that it takes a village to raise a child. My
43:55 God we need our village today. The children are the business of the whole
44:01 village and maybe our world is in the mess that it's in because too many
44:07 people have apathetically pulled their hands out and said I'm glad that's not my
44:13 child. They're all our children, they are all our children. Mind your business, mind
44:21 your business. Some of them are in the cave of addiction, whether it is to drugs,
44:26 whether it is to alcohol, whether it is to greed and and physical things and
44:31 attention, the dopamine rush that you get from from social media. They're all our
44:36 children and they need a lot of hands on them to help lift them out of that and
44:41 get them back to a place of safety. It is the same as the story of the of the
44:47 product of the the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10. It is interesting that
44:53 the priest came out and when he saw the person he said that's that's none of my
44:57 business and passed by on the other side. The Levite came and saw the person
45:02 wounded on the side of the road and said no no no that's that's that's none of my
45:07 business that's none of my business and in a very apathetic way totally turned
45:13 a blind eye to lending a helping hand to a fallen injured person, a person that
45:18 had fallen among thieves and was wounded and left half dead. But then here comes a
45:24 Samaritan. The Samaritans were the despised cousins of the Jews and they
45:28 knew what it felt like to be rejected. Whenever you've been rejected now you
45:32 know and recognize rejection in the eyes of other people who are rejected and so
45:38 now the Samaritan comes and so they see the person that is rejected and dejected
45:42 and in a bad place that has been beaten up and taken advantage of. Their heart
45:47 was moved with compassion and they changed their place. They got down off of
45:51 that animal and put the wounded person on their animal, took them to an inn and
45:56 took care of them and left some money and said if it's anything more than this
46:00 I'll pay the rest of it when I come back. He realized that wounded person is my
46:06 business. They are my business and I just want you to know that they're hurting
46:12 people in our world and we have a God call. They are our business, they're all
46:18 our children. That's somebody's child, that's somebody's brother, that's
46:22 somebody's father, that's somebody's sister, is somebody's daughter and our
46:27 heart needs to feel that with the compassion of Jesus. Let Jesus love
46:33 through you and I'm telling you, you don't have to force your way, friend your
46:39 way. You don't have to force your way into people's lives, you don't have to
46:43 force your way into their business, friend your way, friend your way. Just be
46:48 a friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed. A friend in need is a friend
46:58 indeed. We are our brother's keeper, we are our brother's keeper. Here's the last
47:06 scripture I want to leave with you is Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 18 through 21.
47:11 The prophet Ezekiel is prophesying and saying that when I say to a wicked
47:15 person, "You will surely die and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade
47:23 them from their evil ways in order to save their life," that wicked person will
47:28 die for their sin and God says, "I will hold you accountable for their blood." But
47:35 if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness
47:39 or from their evil ways, they will die for their sins but you will have
47:45 saved yourself. Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness
47:51 and does evil and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since
47:55 you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous person, the
48:02 righteous things that person did will not be remembered and I will hold you
48:06 accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin
48:11 and they do not sin, then they will surely live because they took warning
48:18 and you have saved yourself. I just want to remind you today that we are our
48:26 brother's keeper. We are our brother's keeper and if we fail to warn them
48:34 because we love them and we don't want to see them judged with an eternal
48:40 judgment, we've got to have enough love in our heart to warn them and to say, "Hey,
48:46 the way that you're going is not good. There's a better way. Let me show you. Can
48:52 I talk to you for just a moment? Can I pray with you? Can I tell you where I was?
48:56 I was on this same road. I know where it leads." If we do not open our mouths, God
49:05 says, "I'm going to require their blood at your hand." To him who knows to do good
49:11 and does it not, to him it is sin. We sin when we know the truth, but don't share
49:22 the truth. But don't just share truth. Jesus came full of grace and truth. Share
49:32 the truth with grace in your heart toward them, minding yourself because it
49:40 could have been you. And I want you right now to just bow your head and ask God,
49:48 "Lord, who am I supposed to warn who might be on a wrong road? Show me how to do
49:57 that, God, with deep compassion in my own heart because I am my brother's keeper. I
50:06 am my sister's keeper. We are family. Use me, God, to do your bidding. Ask the Holy
50:19 Spirit to show you who you're supposed to share with, who you're supposed to
50:27 warn, who you're supposed to teach, who you're supposed to love like Jesus loves.
50:35 May the work happen in you and realize they are our business. It's not our
50:43 business to judge them. It's our business to warn them of the coming judgment of
50:49 God if we don't repent. That's a response of love because they are our business. We
51:02 are family. May God's grace rest on you to be able to bring salvation to those
51:11 within your reach. The Lord bless you. We hope that you enjoyed that message. Don't
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