Jentezen Franklin - Who's Your Crew? - Part 1
I want yo welcome you to Kingdom Connection. I'm Jentezen Franklin and I deeply appreciate you joining us today. It's our prayer that God will speak to you through these messages. We still believe God speaks, we still believe He knows how to communicate His will and His plan for our lives. Today's message, I believe, is one that you need to hear. Let's go right into this service, open up your Bible, open up your heart, and if you will listen, I believe, today you'll hear a fresh word.
"Cause there's so much more to the story. Cause you're not done with me" Come on, sing it over somebody right now. "Cause you're not done with me yet". Proclaim it. "Cause you're not done with me yet". They might have called you this week and said, "I just feel like giving up". But you can make a difference in their life. You can intercede with a little song and prayer. Proclaim it over someone right now. "Cause you're not done with me yet. Cause you're not done with me yet". You can go where they are right now. "Cause there's so much more to the story". One more time. "Cause you're not done with me yet. Cause you're not done with me yet".
You might have lost your job this week. You might have been told by the doctor that you have an incurable disease, you might have wrestled with alcoholism or addiction all of your life, but we're here today to proclaim the good news. He's not done with you. "Cause you're not done with me yet". He's not done with you. "Cause there's so much more to the story. You're not done with me yet". Give the Lord all the praise and all the glory, and all the honor. Hallelujah. If you believe He's moving, if you believe He's still writing another chapter, if you believe that the story isn't over. Maybe you've been through a divorce, but He's not done with you. He's not done with you, the sun will shine again. Hold on. Hold on. Weeping may endure for the night but hold on, joy is coming in the morning. Hallelujah. Glory.
Well, I feel the Lord in this place. I believe that today. Matter a fact, I want you to just reach over and grab somebody by the hand or take them by the shoulder and just reach over and give them a little side hug and say, "He's not done with you yet". Somebody give Him all the glory, even before it manifest because you feel something moving and stirring. That's the confirmation. Out of the mouth of two or three witness. Tell somebody on the other side, "That's why you can't quit now. You can't give up now. You can't stop now. You can't let up now. You can't turn back now". Hallelujah. You're gonna make it. you're gonna make it. He's gonna take you up where you belong. You're gonna make it. Down is not your destiny. Depression is not your destiny. Addiction is not your destiny. I'm free, in Jesus name. Failure is not your destiny.
"He's not done with me yet. Cause you're not done with me yet. He's not done with me yet. Cause there's so much more to the story" Hallelujah! Throw your hand up and say, "I receive it". Receive it right now. Oh, if I can just keep going. If I'll just make up my mind, I won't let go until He blesses. "There's so much more to the story. You're not done with me yet. He's not done with me yet". You're not too old, it's not too late, you haven't gone too far. My God. You haven't gone too far. One more time: He's not done. "You're not done with me yet". Go ahead and shout. go ahead a praise Him, go ahead and glorify Him, go ahead and magnify Him, because something is telling you it's not over. "Cause you're not done with me. You're not done with me yet. You're not done. You're not done with me yet. There's so much more to the story. You're not done with me yet. Can you imagine, with all the faith in the room what the Lord can do"?
You forgot the God factor. You forgot what the Lord can do. Is anything impossible with God? "Can you imagine, with all the faith in the room what the Lord can do"? He can heal you, right now, right now. "It's gonna happen. Just let the Way Maker through. He's gonna move. Anything is possible". Come on, proclaim it. "Anything is possible". What a proclamation of faith. "Anything is possible. Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything is possible. Anything is possible. Anything is possible. Who am I to deny what the Lord can do"? I love you, Lord. Glory and honor and praise. Glory and honor and praise. Thank you, Lord.
Open your Bibles to Psalms 133. Praise the mighty name of Jesus. Verse one. Everybody, read it out loud. "Behold, how good, how pleasant it is for brethren," let's stop right there. "For families, for marriages, for moms and dads and parents, for brothers and sisters, for aunts and uncles, for teams at work, for churches," "to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil on the head running down the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down the edge of his garments. It's like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion: for the Lord," listen to this, "there the Lord commands a blessing, even life forevermore".
Listen to this, God searches for unity. God searches for families, for people, for churches, for families, marriages that forgive one another, love one another, keep bridging themselves to one another. And He says, "If I find it," He said, it's beautiful. How lovely, how beautiful in God's eyes when we dwell together in unity. And then that powerful verse said, "There," meaning geographically, wherever I find it, it is the landing strip for my blessing. And the more unity, the bigger the landing strip and the bigger the blessing. Satan has one desire from beginning of time to this day, divide and conquer. Divide and conquer. That is what he loves to do to homes, to families, to brothers, to sisters, to grandparents and grandchildren. Any way he can, he knows that his power is dismantled by unity.
"If any two of you will agree," Jesus said, "and touch and agree and pray, He is more than able," as they were singing. Here in Gainesville, we have Lake Lanier, and during the Olympics in Atlanta, they had the rowing sports on Lake Lanier, is a beautiful rowing center here. And nations from all over the world came in. The sport of rowing is called and is known as crew, crew. And that's what I'm gonna preach on for just a few minutes this morning, Who's your crew? It's funny to me that a sport is so dependent upon the crew, not the superstar, that they actually call it that, crew. It's a long, skinny shell of a boat that's only 24 inches wide. Huge, huge guys with muscles and weighing hundreds of pounds, up to 1,800, sometimes 2,000 pounds on 24 inches. They can barely get their rear ends in the seats.
Look at the size of these. These are Olympic type champions. They're massive, big, strong men. And there's only 24 inches. Usually, the smallest person on that boat is the coach. He's the pastor. In the American church, we have completely turned that around and we've made superstars outta pastors. But the way God looks at it is like that. God says, "I sure didn't pick him because he was qualified and the best one I could find". And I can tell you in my case, I do not have inferiority, but I also am keenly aware that God could have found many, many, many more people who could be more qualified than I am. But if we will be like that in God's eyes and then He sees you, the saints of the Lord as those strong arms. But unless we all come in unity, and only one's got a microphone, the megaphone, that's me.
And while I am feeling very insufficient, even when I walk up to this pulpit this morning, you have no idea how it feels. But at the same time, I do know that God put me in that seat, that God called me to do this, and I'm thankful for the crew that He put me with. And all together we can get across the finish line and win the race. Come on, somebody. He barks orders, "Pick it up. Faster, faster, faster". And then sometimes he says, "Slow down, relax, calm down". When you understand that and you link up to a crew. Who's your crew? Some of you are trying to do it on your own. You say, "Well, me and Jesus have got our own thing going". And you and Jesus, Jesus is calling you. He said, "I'll build my church". And Jesus is calling you to find your crew.
It touches me when people come to this altar and get born again, and then a year later, I see them serving in a ministry. It's powerful. It's powerful hat God can do when we understand it. It's not me, it's us together. It's me with you. A carefully balanced blend. Each must be prepared to compromise. What a message for marriages that the guy with the powerful arms, sometimes the coach will call out a command and he'll say, "Lighten up a little bit". And the guy with the powerful arms has to lighten up. And, because those paddles have gotta hit at the exact same time. And maybe somebody, because what they're trying to get to is something called the swing. This is a term in rowing. Because the biggest concern is they said usually a professional team can get up to 40 to 45 strokes in one minute. It's pretty powerful.
That is, and they're doing it synchronized together. But there's something called swing. And when the group gets in absolute unity, when their timing is just perfect, when everybody's depending on everybody, and they're not doing their own thing and they're not going along and doing what's right in their eyes, and, "I don't care what anybody else thinks". But when they are a beautiful unit, a beautiful crew, they then enter into what they described, they called it poetry. It's almost like the ship begins to lift out of the water, and they call it swing, and it literally begins to glide so fast that even though the front running team may be going 40, 44, sweating, toiling, oh oh so much, so much, that when you hit this thing called swing in a rowboat, you can, sometimes you won't find it at 44 or 40, you can hit it at 32 or 33.
But because everybody's in unity now, they're all doing their thing over there and they're just going, but this group hits unity. And boom, something happens. And they look like they're just kind of relaxing, but they're in unity, and there they go. They said they will soar past. That's how they win If they can hit swing. And I couldn't help but think about how that, you know, it's not just about you, but it's when you begin to have that unity spirit that hits a place, rowing not at your own pace, but the church has a destination. And it's not just about you getting across the finish line. And it's not just about my family, but it's about your family. And it's not just about my trials, but it's about your trials.
And I gotta encourage you. And it's not just about me being encouraged, but I have a responsibility, that we are a crew, that we're a team, that when I'm weak, you help my weakness, and when I'm strong, then I can help yours. But we begin to function that way. In other words, you gotta care about your crew. You gotta love your crew. It's not just, I want to get my family to heaven, I want to get to heaven and look around and see people from Free Chapel with their families in heaven across the finish line. We gotta take that serious. It's not just about me. We've gotta have a miracle of unity. And when that happens, God says, "There, I command the blessing".
When a husband and a wife get in unity, they can go, they hit that swing, wooh, And God says, "What others are toiling to make happen in their family, I'll put my grace. And it's not by might and it's not by power, it's by my Spirit, sayeth the Lord". The Book of Acts is a book about crews, about teams. On the day of Pentecost, the Bible said the Holy Spirit, the day the church was born, they were all, everybody say, "All". That means nobody was doing their own thing. They were all with what? One accord in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind, and they hit swing.
And while others are trying and trying, listen, if you would let the Holy Spirit touch you this morning, the things you can't stop and you're trying your best to get to the place where you can win and defeat this and defeat that in your life, if you would let a crew get around you and the word and listen to your coach named Jesus and He'd tell you what to do with your life, He'd tell you it's not over, and He's still writing your story. And you know what? He would give you the grace to just woo. And other people are trying so hard in this like, but God can give you grace. Anybody ever seen God give you a grace for something? It means it makes it look easier than toiling and rowing and sweating and giving up. But that comes out of a beautiful unity.
Let me read a few scriptures to you. Philippians 2:1. "Therefore, if any of you have encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any in common in sharing in spirit, any tenderness, any compassion". He's talking about oneness. He's talking about freedom. He's talking about walking in truth. 1 Corinthians 1:10. He says, "That all of you agree with one another". That you stop fussing, and you stop fighting, and you stop attacking. How powerful our families would be if we would stop this stuff. And you say, "There'd be no divisions among you; that you be perfectly united in mind and in thought".
That you don't allow the enemy to come and put wedges between people that God has crewed you up with. And then look at this next verse, John 13:35. "By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples". 'Cause you go to church and you got a Christian bumper sticker, nobody cares. Here's how they know you're His disciples, that you love one another. Or what about this one? 2 Corinthians 13:1, "Finally, brothers and sisters rejoice". Well, let's do it. And then, here's what I want you to do. Strive. If there's any division, strive for restoration. That's not just kick back, I don't, "I'm done. I'm done". "Strive for full restoration. Encourage one another. Be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you".
What about Philippians 2:3? "Do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. Rather," listen, "in humility, value others above yourself". Powerful. The power of unity, the power of running with the right crew. Some of you are running with people and the crew that you're in, you're never gonna know victory, you're never going to know the life that God had for you. You're never going to experience the peace that He has for you because you need a new crew.
You can go back, and you can put them on the boat later. But you need a crew around you of encouragers and faith filled people who know, and people who believe in God's plan for your life. It can change your future. It can change the destiny of your whole children, families, generations. God is just looking for families that will say, "Lord, do I need to apologize? Do I need to reach out? Do I need to ask for forgiveness? Do I need to forgive? Do I need to let disunity go"? Cause that's what it's like. The Bible said unity can do what you can't do. God commands a blessing there.