Pastor Kent Christmas | Our Purpose | April 17, 2024
Pastor Kent Christmas | Our Purpose | April 17, 2024
Pastor Kent Christmas Podcast www.regenerationnashville.org
You’re watching KC MIT be.
Well, thank you for joining me today.
Um, if you were with us this last week, we had a marvelous conference and Uh, god just moved in a tremendous way.
And but here we are back for another podcast to to share the word of the lord and Uh, I wanna talk to you about something that applies to every single one of us in our lives that are serving Christ, and that’s it.
Is our purpose. And, of course, you know, uh, everybody wants to know what their purpose is and wanna be fulfilled in that.
And so, um, I I the lord just began to roll this over in my spirit.
And, uh, I wanna talk to you a little bit about it.
We’re gonna take a couple of portion of scripture.
And, uh, one is, of course, a very familiar portion at Ecclesiastes chapter 3.
And, um, verse 1, it says to everything There is a season and a time.
Boy, this is this is the key and a time to every purpose under the heavens.
And, um, every single person that is serving Christ.
In fact, every single person that’s ever born, god has a purpose for them, whether they commit their lives to Christ or not.
And how we navigate our lives and how we obey the voice of the lord determines to what extent uh, the purpose of god is for us.
And, um, the lord speaks here, he said, there is a time to every purpose.
Uh, before I get into that, I wanna go back and just, uh, read I think we test on this in one of our earlier podcasts.
This is in Jeremiah. And, uh, I think I might have spoke to you in this verse last week.
Uh, but this is what the lord said to Jeremiah, verse 5 of chapter 1, 4, I formed the in the belly.
I knew you, or he literally says, I was acquainted with you before for you were ever formed physically in the womb of your mother.
And he said, I sanctified the again, before you ever came out of the womb before he was even formed.
He said, I sanctified Dean, and then I loved this.
He said, before Jeremiah, you were ever born before there was any tangible physical evidence of your existence even in the womb, he ends this verse by saying this, I ordain the a prophet onto the nations.
So what he’s telling Jeremiah here is he says, before you ever existed in the natural realm, I was already acquainted with you.
Why? Because god knows the end from the beginning.
And when god looks at humanity and the earth, he looks at it from a height that it allows him to see the finish, the entire complexity of the picture.
And so you and I are walking by faith because we can’t see the future.
But when god looks at the future, he already sees it complete.
So when he’s talking to Jeremiah here, he said before you were ever born, he said, I ordained thee to be a prophet.
What he’s saying is before you’re ever born, I already determine your purpose.
When you came out of the womb, god had a purpose for you.
He said, well, pastor, then why am I not walking my perp and this is really where I wanna dig deep today.
Just because god has given you purpose, doesn’t mean that you’re gonna walk in it immediately because he cleans the ass.
He goes back to it. He said, there is a time to every purpose.
Um, I used myself a lot on our podcast, and um, you know, I feel like now I’m beginning to to see the fullness of my purpose but I sure would have liked to have walked in at 40 years ago.
And many of you feel the same way.
You feel like you’re just going in circles or you’re treading water.
But god says with purpose, for purpose to really be fulfilled, it has to be fulfilled in the right time.
Two reasons. One can be that the need for that has not yet arisen in the earth or in the sphere of rule that you have in your life.
It it there’s no need for that yet because something has not transpired.
The other reason is, uh, our maturity Are we able to have the wisdom and the maturity to walk and fulfill the purpose of god on us?
And so, uh, I’ll give you some examples. Let’s let’s let’s start with Jesus.
The Bible says this, for this cause or this purpose was Jesus Christ manifested or revealed.
And this is his purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil.
That’s why Jesus came to the earth.
Not just to die for our sins, but literally to destroy the works of the devil.
Calvary was the precipitous of that purpose. It was the beginning of it, but it wasn’t the fullness.
Resurrection brought that into. But Jesus, we know he’s god in flesh.
He was god was manifested in the flesh and justified in the spirit, seen evangels, believed on the world, Hallelujah priest and the gentiles are seeped up into glory.
But when Jesus was born, Remember, he’s he’s twelve years old.
He’s already astounding the learned minds of his day. But god did not.
The father did not reveal his purpose. Why?
Jesus’s purpose was never revealed until he was thirty years old.
We know that he worked, uh, with Joseph, his father, uh, who was, um, historically, he was not just a carpenter.
He was a mason. And this is why, uh, Jesus refers a lot of times to, um, stones and foundations and and building houses was because that was his background.
He came from a realm of building.
And, um, I I’ve thought about this, you know, those days that Jesus was building a chair or he was doing some kind of carpentry or some kind of masonry.
And he’s, you know, he’s twenty seven years old, and he’s wondering, Lord, Why am I here?
Because he was restricted from deity operating in that.
And the Bible says this when Jesus came of the world. He wasn’t instantly wise.
The scripture says that he grew in wisdom and in stature. What was taking place here.
The father was equipping him with the maturity and the revelation and the relationship to be able to handle the purpose.
There are many listen. Just because god’s called you, doesn’t mean you’re ready.
Uh, I knew when I was seventeen years old, I was to preach the gospel.
And when I was 35 was the first time I moved prophetically, but it was till, you know, it’s almost 3rd it was 30 years later before god really began to thrust me in the fullness of the prophetic on a national or international level because there were a lot of things that I had to go through.
Through much tribulation till we enter to the kingdom of god. And so god takes you through the process.
There’s a scripture that says this many are called, but few are chosen.
The time that transpires between being called and being chosen is about how you respond to the spirit of god working in you.
Purpose comes at birth. Being thrust into it comes when you have the maturity and there is the need for whatever is in you to be released in that hour.
And Jesus never walked into his purpose until he had been on the earth for 30 years.
He was in right standing with a father.
He was obedient, but there was a maturation process that went on in his life.
And then that time came that he was being released hallelujah into his purpose.
Going back to the Old Testament, when we think of Moses, he’s the Old Testament pastor, uh, incredible men of god, denied to go into the promised land, and yet we find him, uh, millennials later standing the promised land on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus is Christ.
When Moses was born, purpose for him to be a deliverer of Israel was thrust upon him as, uh, even as a baby just like Jeremiah in the womb.
He was born for that time that he was gonna be the deliverer of Israel.
God puts him in the house of Pedro And at the age of forty, Moses feels like I am ready to walk in my purpose.
The problem was was that he was going to have to deal with payroll to get the children of Israel free.
And Moses was afraid a pharaoh. He said, well, how do we know that?
Because when he killed the Egyptian, he said pharaoh’s gonna hear about this.
And he ran for his life because he was intimidated by the man that his purpose said he was going to confront.
You cannot be intimidated by your adversary.
This is This is why it takes time to grow on Christ. So what does god do?
The purpose of god when Moses ran never was lifted it never changed, but the man did.
God puts him into the backside of the desert And for 40 years, the lord begins to pull out of him fear and intimidation and begins to pull out of him his feeling that I’m ready and that I can go on my own strength.
And I know what I’m supposed to do. And after when he’s eighty years old, boom.
The vine encounter with god in the burning bush, and god begins to thrust him into his purpose.
And this Moses that went through the process wasn’t afraid or fatal because the Bible said He marched hallelujah into that throne room and said, thus, sayeth the lord, you are going to let my people go.
Um, if you I’ll give you 2 more examples.
One is Elijah and Elijah.
A lot of times, uh, we have this tendency to think that, um, you know, when Elijah went up and to have Elijah just been with him a couple years.
And now he has a double portion of of the spirit of Elijah and the mantle and He’s just gonna do great things.
Not so. When Elijah, the lord speaks to Elige, and he said, I want you to anoint Elijah because he’s going to take your place.
Then Elijah comes along and hits him with the mantle.
And, um, of course, Elijah, you know, sacrifices the oxen burns the farm implements and, uh, runs after Elijah and It says, uh, you know, I wanna serve you.
I wanna follow you. What we don’t really realize unless you study it is god put purpose on Elijah the day he was called.
The day that Elijah walked passed Elijah and touched his shoulder. That’s the day purpose. Hallelujah was thrust upon Elijah.
But Elijah never gets the double portion of the spirit of Elijah for 20 years.
Elijah learns to be a servant to Elijah, his master.
He follows him for 20 years, and it’s after 20 years that god tells Elijah. Alright.
I’m gonna take you up to heaven. In a fiery chariot.
And those 20 years is what allowed elisha to be able to handle the anointing.
Anointing on men and women that have not been prepared will shipwreck them because anointing does amazing things.
It’s this it it opens doors and it creates the miraculous and and all kinds of things.
And if an individual has not gone through the process of being able to carry, see purpose is heavy.
It is a heavy burden that god thrust upon you.
And when the enemy sees your purpose, he’s gonna tailor make different scenarios to try to derail you from that purpose, and each of us has a different purpose.
At the end of 20 years, god releases the double portion of Elijah’s spirit and then the mantle comes upon him.
I think that there are many of us, hallelujah, that we are in the season where god says It’s time now for your purpose to be activated.
The last one that I wanna talk about is Joseph.
And when Joseph is 17, god begins to give him prophetic dreams, begins to reveal to him.
His future, his purpose. And, um, when that purpose is, you know, begin to be revealed in the dreams, Joseph doesn’t have the wisdom on Bible talks to the be careful who you tell your secrets to.
Because not everybody’s gonna rejoice with him.
His family didn’t rejoice with him because it involved him being elevated above them.
And At the age of seventeen, god tells him, you know, you have this great purpose.
And then we find him 13 years later, and he is anointed as second in command in all of Egypt next to federal.
But there is a 13 year span between the dreams and the purpose being thrust on him and the activation of that purpose.
I think that you and I have to some degree, we determine how long it takes for us to be put into our purpose.
Because, uh, you know, a lot of times what we think this purpose is our own will.
It’s it’s wanting flesh to be elevated, and the purpose of god never highlights flesh never exalts it.
It only exalts Christ. So you find Joseph going through this process of you know, being hated by his brothers, being sold to the cashed into the pit, being sold to the midian nights, being sold to potifer and being falsely accused of rape, being thrust into prison.
He’s forgotten by the baker and the butler and He just he just has a horrible existence.
And you think about this that the man that’s gonna rule the nation of Egypt.
With this heavy purpose on him, you know where he is?
He’s locked in one of the dirtiest dungeons of prison in Egypt. You can’t get any lower than that.
And when the time came, this is there’s a verse I love that talks about Joseph.
It said the word of the lord tried him.
And there I I’ve seen lots of people that you you knew they had a heavy purpose of god in their life, but they never walked into it because they could not pass the times that god would test them.
The word tried literally means it tested Joseph.
He he was testing the strength of Joseph because god needed a man that could handle wealth that could handle fame, could handle power, and not abuse it.
And so the lord let Joseph ex experience poverty.
Anonymity rejection being forgotten, emotional pain, all of these things being a prisoner, that when the crown of purpose was thrust on Joseph, the memories of what it took to get there is what kept him tethered to balance.
And we are in a season where there are so many of you that have the purpose of god on you, and I wanna I wanna say this to you by the spirit.
You’ve passed the test. And there is a changing of the guard, and the first are getting ready to be last, and the last are gonna be first, and there is a exchange now.
And god is gonna begin to elevate people and thrust them into their purpose almost overnight.
As he did mean, he can do that for so many of you.
And so, uh, I I wanna encourage you that, um, you know, our desires aren’t always our purpose.
We we confuse the 2. Know what the purpose of god is on you and then stick to it.
Don’t deviate. Be that person.
And in due season, god will bring his purpose to pass in your life and you are gonna have joy unspeakable.
Well, thank you for joining me. And I I hope this has helped you today. You stay strong now.
Don’t let the devil get you down. Don’t let discouragement. Wrap you up.
But remember this before you were born, god knew you, and he already declared who you’re gonna be.
I’ll see you next week.
For more information about Kent Christmas Ministries International or regeneration Nashville, go to campchristmas.org, or regeneration nashville.org.
