Frankie Mazzapica - I Will Not Throw Away My Shot
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is "I Will Not Throw Away My Shot". I'm not throwing away my shot. Let me just lay a scriptural foundation straight away. It's in Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 where it says this. The Lord says, "You are the light of the world". You, I wish I could point at every single one of you. You are the light of the world, just as much as you own your name, just as much as you are who you are. You have been created to be a light. He says, "You are the light of the world," and he goes on to say, "A city set on a hill can be seen by everyone. It cannot be hidden". It goes on to say, "Nor do they light a lamp and then hide it under a basket. Instead, they put it on a lampstand so that it gives light. It gives light to everyone in the house".
And then in verse 16, it says this. He goes, "So let your light," let it, like just like it's urging to come out of you. It burns in your soul. It says, "Let your light shine," just like you know it's your calling, "before all men. Let them see your works". Let them watch you. Let them watch you and say there's something different about you. You don't act like the rest of us. You don't talk like the rest of us. You don't dress like the rest of us. Let them see you. "Let them see you in your light and doing good works so that you bring glory to God".
I've got three major points for you. The first one is I wanna talk about this dark world. Then I wanna talk about the shining light, the light right here. And then I wanna talk about the anointing. I wanna talk about when God pours the anointing on someone's life. First of all, before I talk about how God has a burning light in you, I want to identify the few areas, and I'm only gonna talk about a couple, that show how dark this world is because very soon we will not see sin and be shocked by it. In fact, we will see it so often that we won't even notice it anymore, and it will be so widely accepted that soon, sin will no longer even be offensive. And that is a scary place.
Now, for those whose hearts burn for God, it will always be offensive. It will always be a hurting thing to see. But for those who have allowed their heart to grow cold, you see when the fire, the flame, is underneath the basket, it will grow cold. But for those of you that let it burn, it will become so offensive. And what am I talking about? I'm just gonna address two major areas. The first one is sexual promiscuity. Now, when I get into this point, I recognize half of this room is going to appreciate the point. Half of this room will never be back. Okay. I'm not trying to speak that into existence, but let me just get right into it. So if sexual promiscuity is sexual impurity, specifically, not only, but specifically outside of the marriage bedroom, it's sexual promiscuity.
In today's world, when you are watching TV or a movie, if you see a guy and a guy kiss or a woman and a woman kiss, you just kind of back up and you go, "Oh, my goodness," like, you know, okay, this is where we're at now. But this is... when Christians or anyone would see that 10, 15 years ago, would be like, "Oh, my goodness! What am I watching"? Well, now you're watching just regular TV. And it's become so common. You know, sexual promiscuity when you're outside of the marriage bedroom is when you're touching things that should be covered by clothes. This is sexual promiscuity, and this is rampant. I was talking to one of my kids, and I said, "Let me tell you what's coming".
Now, when you go to the mall or you walk down the street, you see a guy dressed like a woman or a woman dressed like a guy. You notice them. You're like, "Oh, my goodness". And you see a person doing that every once in a while, but the day is coming where it's common. You don't even really take note. It's like it's common, and this is where everything's going. And what's scary, this is what's scary, is that this is going to become so rampant that it won't even be offensive to the coldhearted, won't even become offensive. Let me dive into this next subpoint underneath this dark world. The next point is on curses. A curse is anything someone says with the intention of hurting them. It's an insult.
How many of us have learned that when somebody comes to you and they say, "Hey, I don't mean this offensively," it's like, okay, here we go. Or, you know, "I'm just joking," and it's just like I didn't hear the funny part. I just heard the thread that you meant to say. Are you with me? Say yes. It's like these are our curses. It's with the intent of offense. And oftentimes, a whole family has the culture of that, and it's just how we are. Right? And so now, someone is constantly around these curses, and I wanna tell you, and this is where we're gonna get a little hairy, sarcasm are insults. They're insults. You can call it sarcastic all you want to to make you feel better about it, but it is what it is. It's all fun and games until somebody starts being sarcastic with you.
And a true sarcastic person, a true sarcastic person is like, "Well, I love it. Go ahead and bring it back. We can go all day like this". Really? You know, you speak a curse. I speak a curse. You speak a curse, and this is fun? Really? Come on! Here's the thing about sarcasm. Here I go again. Here's the thing about sarcasm is you don't forget what was said sarcastically. You don't forget it, and that should not be fun for you. It shouldn't be fun. People have said things sarcastically to me and guess what? I still remember. Sarcasm in my house is not allowed. It never ever happens.
My wife and I, when we were dating, we had this little sarcastic back and forth, and I didn't like it. And I was like, "Okay, that was the last time". And it was while we were playing Monopoly. I don't know if Christians can have Monopoly in their house. Here's the thing in full transparency. I'm only barely saved. So if you push me, that other unsafe part ends up waking up. And so I said, "Okay, we cannot be sarcastic ever again". And our kids have picked that up. I've never had to tell my kids, "Don't be sarcastic". I've never had to tell them that. Now, I've had to tell them before, "I'm gonna knock you out," but I've never had to tell them, "Don't be sarcastic". Sarcastic is an insult. These are the things. These are curses.
There's a well-known rapper that many of you would know his name, and he was doing a concert a couple years ago. And this lesser-known rapper was opening the concert. And so, the lesser-known rapper was, he was rapping. And it was, you know, they weren't Christians, let's just put it that way. And so the lesser-known rapper, he was done, and all of a sudden, he started feeling sick to his stomach. And so he went behind the stage, and something told him, "Keep on watching". And so he was watching, and all of a sudden, the Spirit of the Lord took his scales off of his eyes. And now, he can see into the Spirit. And so he saw the rapper rapping, and it was like his voice was alive. It was like this dark smoke coming out, but there was like these... it was alive, and he knew he was speaking curses.
Now, the lyrics was not what he was seeing. It was harsh lyrics, or worldly lyrics, but it was curses coming out of his mouth. And then he looked into the crowd, and the crowd was singing along, and they were speaking curses. And he started seeing what was happening. I wanna say this. If you're gonna listen to secular music, I wanna tell you, you better be so careful, so careful because you may be listening to curses. And I wanna say. This is how careful I want you to be. I want you to ask the Holy Spirit, "Are you okay with this"? Are you okay with this? Come on if you agree. Are you okay with this?
Now, some people won't take that ten seconds to turn it down and ask because their enjoyment of the song and the artist outweighs their concern on whether or not the Lord is offended with it. Because every time you're looking at an artist that you like, they fit your age group and you think they're cool and you think they're fun, can I just tell you, Satan is not gonna come before you and bait you into music that you don't already like. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. At least, the very least, "God, are you okay with this"?
Next point: the light, the shining light, the fact that you are this. Here's my question. So many of you, and you know who you are, you are so intuitive that you can look into someone's eyes and you can see they're not okay. The countenance on their face, you can tell they're not okay. Let me ask you. What are you gonna do? Are you going to waste your shot by saying, "I don't want to be uncomfortable so let me just not talk about things about God. Don't let me even mention. I don't wanna make them uncomfortable, and I don't wanna be uncomfortable..." That was scary. Here's the thing. What are we going to do? Are we going to waste our shot and leave them that way? Are we gonna leave them that way when you know they're not okay? Are we going to leave them that way or are we going to recognize this is my shot? This is my moment! You see, I'm not gonna be happy till I knock this over.
See, the enemy, all he knows is sometimes someone can get excited about the things of God, and just take a paper airplane, any problem, and all of a sudden, this commitment to not leave people the way they are, all of a sudden, that is no longer a priority. Because a problem, I'm not trying to minimize problems, some of these problems, I know what they're like. They're never not on your mind. It's always on your mind. I'm not minimizing that. I'm anointed to preach it, but I gotta live it, just like every one of you. When I'm speaking on this stage, I have muscles on my teeth and lightning in my veins, but when the 25 minutes is over and I get off the stage, I'm just me again and I gotta fight the battle, just like all of you.
You know, I'm telling you when these battles come... do you agree? Come on. When these battles come, I'm just like you. I just wanna just scrape and claw and just somehow get out of this mess. This is when this is no longer a priority. I'm willing to just leave people the way they are because I'm too consumed with my own issues. If it's that easy for the enemy just to sail a problem like a paper airplane, my goodness, we'll live the whole, our whole, life not being the light that we're called to be. Now, let's get super practical. What does "being the light" mean? Let me illustrate it with a quick story. I used to work for Fuddruckers Hamburgers growing up. Anyone like Fuddruckers? Your like, "It's anointed. It's anointed". Absolutely. It's right up there with Chick-Fil-A. It's anointed.
But I don't know if they still do this. It's been a minute since I've been there, but when I was like 17, they had a microphone that you could say the number, the order number, that was ready. So, that was a massive mistake for the manager to let a 17-year-old Frankie have a microphone to be able to speak to the entire restaurant, massive mistake, because, here I am, "In the blue corner, we've got order number 32..." After about a week, the manager came up to me and was like, "All right. All right. You're gonna have to cut back on it. I know people are laughing. I know they like it, but you're gonna have to cut back on it". So I was like, "All right, I'll cut back". "Number...32"! He's looking at me. I was like, "I didn't pull him out of the red corner or the blue corner. I just".
And so one time, our youth group came to Fuddruckers and I'm doing the order. And they're coming there because I feel like they serve the best hamburgers on the planet, but they're coming there, and my youth pastor was there. And I started talking about how awesome Sunday was. I'm like 17. I was like, "Oh, my goodness. Church was so, like, I'm still thinking about it," and he comes up to me later, and he goes, "I was really inspired that you were talking about church in front of your friends at Fuddruckers". And I'm looking at him, and I'm like, "You're my youth pastor. Why are you shocked? This is crazy". This is the practical side of simply talking about what you're passionate about. Come on, encourage me. Do you agree? This is the practical side.
Just to mention church: "I was at church" or "I was praying the other day". If we don't say these comments, and the enemy is like, "Ha ha ha". See, if Satan cannot steal your soul, he'll keep you from partnering with the Lord so that he can save other people's soul. This is what he'll do. And it's amazing if we just talk about, if you just say the word "church," it's like "bing". Sometimes the enemy will say, "Oh, you better not," because they know how you really are, right? Dear Lord. They know how you really are. Let me say this. When we trip up, hit a rough spot, say something, do something that we know the Lord is not happy with and people see it or hear it, the next thing we do is the most important thing we can do after the thing that we did that we wish we didn't do. We can't just slide down. I wish I didn't do it. I wish I didn't do it.
The immediate thing afterwards is to do something to erase what just happened. And how do we erase it? We just go, "Oh, Dear Lord, you know, I shouldn't have did that". And if we look at the person, say, "I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have did this. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have did it. I shouldn't have did it". Do you know how many times I've looked at my kids and said, "I'm sorry. Like, I totally blew it". I have a 19-year-old, a 16-year-old, and a 10-year-old. "I'm sorry. Dad blew it". That's not fun. I feel like I say that more than my kids say it to me. It's just like, "I blew it. I'm sorry". And when we're with somebody and we're saying, "I'm not gonna miss my shot. This is what I'm born to do". And you say something. Just look, "Hey, I shouldn't have said that". Sometimes, I gotta come back four days later, "Hey, I've been thinking about it. I'm sorry".
What are we doing? This is why I'm born. This is what I'm doing here. Sin is becoming so rampant. I'm not gonna miss my shot! I'm not gonna miss my shots. The light that shines the furthest shines the brightest at home. God is not gonna let you shine the light on other people's life to encourage them by telling them who you worship and where you worship without impacting you first. This flame will burn in your bones before you even say one sentence. It'll burn in your bones. And how do you cultivate that flame? The power of one sentence is unbelievable. Saying one sentence, "I go to church". That's powerful doing this, but to burn this in you is still one sentence. I love you. I love you. Short prayers are so powerful.
That's why Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, he says, "Never stop praying". Let me go to the third point. It's the anointing oil in Isaiah 10:27. It says that the anointing oil breaks the yoke, the yoke of fear and disappointment and hating yourself and not liking yourself and not liking what you see in the mirror and feeling like your situation is never going to change. The only way that that will ever change is if God pours his anointing on the situation because that is the only thing that will break the yoke. That's why we've tried everything else. And the issue is still there because it's the anointing oil. And what do we say? Those one sentence prayers all over. God, I have no chance of being a light out here unless you help me right here. It's those one-sentence prayers. This is where the anointing begins to flow on you and then through you. Do you accept this? Do you believe in it?