A Charge to Pastors

All right, this is a wonderful day for our church. Thank you for taking part in it. Now, I wanna ask my lifelong best bud, Dr. Myron Golden, to come up and deliver the charge to our candidates, but also to all of us, as I know he will.

Brother Myron, come on up.

Transformation, the Garden of Eden, and the Meaning of Human Life

Well, I can honestly, good morning. I can honestly say I have never been more challenged with coming up with what I'm going to talk about than speaking at the ordination service for John and Ben. I've known Ben since before he was born.

I didn't make any sense, but you know what I mean. I remember when Ben was born, and it's just so remarkable to have watched him grow and to become this man who loves the word and who loves God. And I thought, contemplated, and prayed for a long time.

What am I gonna talk about? So hopefully I picked the right thing. Met John many years ago as well. It's interesting how many conversations the men in this church have had about Bible doctrine. It didn't just start this morning at the ordination council.

Is this a little echoey, or is it just me? Oh, you're gonna fix it, okay. Yeah, so I was sharing with some folks last night as I was thinking about how transformation happens in the lives of people. And the Bible said, you know, the Bible talks a lot about transformation, like a lot, a lot.

It's not a little lot, but a lot, a lot. And it's really, really, really clear. If you read the Bible slowly enough, you can find out, figure out how to do a whole lot of stuff that you can't find out when you're reading it in a hurry.

And so I'm gonna just share some thoughts with y 'all. I'm not gonna preach really long because I don't have any long sermons. It's the introductions that take all the time. All of my sermons are short.

My introductions, eh, not so much. But I just wanna share a concept with you, a foundational concept about life. And I think it's a perfect picture of what we're witnessing and experiencing today. I think it is, I think it's a perfect picture, a perfect example.

I think it'll be a great charge and challenge for John and for Ben, and as well as for the rest of us. So I'm gonna read from Genesis chapter two, starting with verse seven. I'm gonna read down to verse 17.

And the subject that I wanna speak to y 'all about today is grow in the garden of God as you grow the garden of God within. And it's like the whole concept of a garden is a fascinating concept. When you think about the fact that man's life started in a garden, when you think about the fact that not only did life begin in the garden, but death began in a garden.

Life began in a garden with some trees and death began in a garden with a tree. And redemption happened in a garden with a tree. And there's a whole lot of gardens and a whole lot of trees going on in the Bible.

And we're gonna look at these gardens and these trees in a way that maybe we've never looked at them before. And I think that we will see something that's so supernaturally magnificent, so artistically beautiful and scientifically perfect that we can walk away with nothing less than being in awe of the God who created us.

So in Genesis chapter two, verse number seven, it says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.

And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God, out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to sight, to the sight that is good for food and the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And a river went out of Eden and watered the garden. And from thence it was parted and became into four heads. And the name of the first is Pison that compassed the whole land of Havala, where there is gold and the gold of that land is good and delium and onyx stone.

And the name of the second is Gihon. The same is it which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Edechio and it which goes towards the east of Assyria. And the fourth is the river Euphrates.

And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, and by the way, the word dress means to cultivate and the word keep means to protect.

So he's to cultivate and protect the garden. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden I may as freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

Father, thank you for your word that it is truth. May we behold wonderful things out of your word. May our lives be different today as a direct result of the illumination that can only come from the bright light of the word of God.

And we thank you for it in the name of Yeshua, amen. I find it both beautiful and fascinating that God's ideal environment for man is a garden. How do I know that's his ideal environment? Because that's where he put him when he made him.

And it gives us a whole process that it's painting a whole picture. And I find it interesting that the scripture talks about, there's trees in the garden, there's all these trees, there's a tree of life, and there's also the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and there's all these other trees, and there's a lot of conversation around, well, if God didn't want man to eat off the tree of knowledge of good and evil, why did he put it in the garden?

Well, and people think they're asking a really great question with no answer, right? I believe that the answer is because if there is no opportunity to do right, there is, I mean, if there's no opportunity to do wrong, there is no opportunity to do right.

Right wouldn't be right if there was no opportunity to do wrong, it would just be default. It's interesting that there's another tree in the middle of the garden called the tree of life, and the enemy is so persuasive that he could get us to reject the tree of life and choose the tree of death, that's fascinating.

And then there are all these other trees that are all over the garden, and who knows what they were, maybe they were peach trees, maybe they were pineapple trees, maybe they were almond trees and olive trees, pomegranate trees and orange trees and lemon trees, and avocado trees and walnut trees, there's all kinds of stuff growing in that garden.

And they didn't have to pay for food, it just grew everywhere. And the garden of Eden, this ideal environment that God created for man, the word garden means enclosure or a protected place. So when we think about the garden, I'm gonna draw on this board so you can really see this picture about growing in the garden of God in so many ways, the word garden means enclosure.

So there was a wall of protection or a fence of protection around the garden. We know that the garden was an enclosure, and we know that it had walls around it or it had a fence around it. We know that because the scripture says that when man sinned, God put an angel with a flaming sword at the gate.

And if there's a gate, it has to be connected to a fence because you don't put a gate out in the middle of the field, what's it gonna do? Nothing, right? And so God's ideal environment for man is a protected place.

The word Eden means pleasure. And so the garden of Eden is the protected place of pleasure. So God's ideal environment for man is the protected place of pleasure. And then when we get down to Genesis 2, verse 16 and 17, it says, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat.

And that's a picture of provision. So we know that the ideal environment for man, according to God is the protected place of pleasure and provision. But I find it fascinating that the scripture says, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.

So God literally picked up dust, dirt, and molded it and squeezed it into this man, this Aleph, Daleth, Mem, this Adam. And God called their name Adam. And God made man. And when God made man, he made man very different than everything else he had made because God created three categories in creation.

And I'm not gonna wait, I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time here, but God created creation in creation. He created the sun and the moon and the stars and the rocks and the water and the wind. He created creation and stuff.

He created creatures. He created dogs and cats and alligators and chimpanzees and lions and tigers and bears. Oh no. And then when he created creation, creation couldn't appreciate the fact that it was created by the creator and it couldn't appreciate the creator that created it.

So God created creation, but he couldn't connect with creation because creation couldn't connect with him. And then he created creatures and creatures could do stuff, but they couldn't appreciate the God that created them.

They didn't even have the language that was essential for praising the God that was created, who created them. And so now God's got creation and he's got creatures, but he still has no connection. And people say, well, why?

In the beginning, God created heavy earth. Why would he do that? The only answer I've ever been able to find, if you find a better one, please share it with me and I'll share it with everybody I talk to.

But the answer seems to be because he is creative and therefore it is his nature to create. So creation exists as an expression of a creative God. I like how one writer said, heaven gives earth meaning and earth gives heaven expression.

And so God created because it's his nature to create, but then he created creatures, but he couldn't connect with creatures and he couldn't connect with creation. So he created creators or he created creatives.

He created something that was like him, but not him. And he created this thing called man and man in Hebrew is spelled Aleph, Daled, Mem. Aleph is the letter that represents God. The word Elohim begins with an Aleph.

The name El Shaddai begins with an Aleph. An Aleph is made of two yodes and above. There's a yode below the above and there's a yode above the above. And then you have the above. Well, the yode is a hand.

The above is a nail. The letter that represents God has a hand above the nail and a hand below the nail and a nail that connects them together. And then we have this other word, Daled, Mem, which spells the word in Hebrew, dome, but the word dome in Hebrew is the word blood in English.

And we know that the life of the flesh is in the blood. So now we know what a man is. And when I say a man, I'm talking about men and women because God called their name Adam. Adam later called her name Eve.

So we know that a man is a God-like creator or creative with flesh and blood. So God-like means man has a spirit, but flesh and blood means man has a body. So man is like God, but not God. And so the reason it's so important for us to understand that man is like God, but not God is so we understand when God is telling us in creation, because the entire chapter of Genesis chapter one could have been just verse one in the beginning, God created the heaven, the earth.

Okay, that's enough for me. God created the heaven and the earth, but he keeps on going. And then he starts going into all these details. And the earth was without form and void and Darcy's upon the face of the deep and Lord God.

And God said, let there be. I mean, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, let there be light. And there was light in the evening, in the morning with the first day. Wait, I thought you already said he created.

Why are we going into all these details? We're going into all these details because the first thing God tells about God is that he's creative. But the first thing that God tells about man is that he created man in his image.

And he created man in his image. And God, the very first thing that God tells us about God is that he's creative. If he created man in his image, that means he created man to create stuff and he made man to make stuff.

Why? Because that's how man expresses his God likeness. That's how men and women and boys and girls, we express our God likeness by creating something. We saw Paul get up here and pick up this guitar and play it.

We saw Matty go over here on the piano and play a song and sing a song. A human being, human beings wrote those songs and put those notes together to make it sound like something that the rest of us could appreciate.

And when we do that, we're expressing our God likeness. When an artist takes a paintbrush and he paints something beautiful, they're taking a picture that they have in their mind and they're putting it on a canvas so the world can see.

But when they do that, they don't, some people are doing it, they don't even realize you're expressing your God likeness. When an electrician is at work and he's running wires and drilling holes and making sure the electricity flows the way it's supposed to flow and it doesn't catch the building on fire, he's expressing his God likeness.

When a teacher teaches, when a mother prepares a meal, all of the things we do when we're doing them, we're expressing our God likeness. And the reason God went into so much detail in Genesis chapter one is so that not, we would not only know that he created the heaven and the earth, but we would know the process he used when he created the heaven and the earth.

So when we get ready to create something, because we're made in the image of God, we'd have a pattern to follow. And it's really, it's really like we can see the pattern. Sometimes we miss it because we're in a, like we're moving too fast, but the pattern begins with intention.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Why? Because that was his intention. But then disruption follows intention. Why is he showing us this? Because he doesn't want us to become so discouraged when disruption follows our intention that we quit doing what we were doing because something difficult showed up.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. What's the very next thing he says? And the earth was without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep. The word was is not the word used to be.

The word was is became. The earth became without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep. Why? Because even for God, disruption follows intention. Why? He's showing us the pattern. And the spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters.

We need, that's a, the spirit is a type of inspiration. I have to find inspiration to keep on going when disruption follows my intention. We see two men here who are getting ordained today and they get ordained and we're asking them questions.

You don't discover the answers that they gave us in their time we were questioning them by not going through something difficult. I told you my introductions take all the time. And so God gave us a pattern.

And so we need to find a source of inspiration. Then it says that God says let there be light. We need to find a source of illumination. What is illumination? It's when we can see something we couldn't see.

So when we learn something that we didn't know, it shines light in a space of darkness that was based on ignorance. So now we can see in the light of knowledge what we could not see in the darkness of ignorance.

Do you see the pattern? And so God puts man in the garden, but the Lord planted the garden. So God pulls man out of the dirt, makes him a body, breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living soul.

And then he takes the man that he pulled out of the dirt. And then God went and planted a garden. And then he goes and takes the man and puts the man that he pulled out of the dirt in the garden to dress it and keep it.

So the man who's made of the same dirt from the garden is now in charge of protecting and keeping the garden and cultivating the garden. And by the way, as ministers of the word of God and ministers of the gospel, that is our job, to cultivate the garden of God in our lives and in the lives of the people we serve.

That's our job. That's what we're supposed to be doing. In the reality, that's what we're supposed to be doing as parents. That's what we're supposed to be doing as teachers, cultivating the garden of God.

And so God pulls man out of the dust of the ground, plants a garden, puts the man there, says, okay, dress it and keep it. God planted the garden. Okay, so let's look at that. Inside this garden, we plant a tree.

Trees always, everybody say always. Always. Trees always grow. Trees never grow no more. Trees grow down. By the way, not only do they grow through, gravitrophic means it grows towards gravity and away from light.

The gravitrophic nature of a tree can be seen by no one but God. I want you to think about that. The part of the tree that makes the tree possible can only be seen by God. And then the part of the tree that grows above the dirt, the phototropic nature.

The phototropic nature of the tree grows towards light and away from gravity. Human beings run into trouble when they're so focused on the phototropic nature of their tree of their life and they're ignoring the gravitrophic nature.

They want the part everybody can see without having the part that nobody can see. But they grow in both directions at the same time. And God told the gardener, protect it and keep it. Now, all of that's good.

So how do I cultivate this garden? Well, I gotta pull some weeds. So when the weed of false doctrine begins to spring up in the church, that weed has to be plucked and you cannot be timid when it comes to plucking weeds.

But that's a pretty weed. I think I'm gonna leave it there. It's not doing anything. It's just there all by itself. I don't know if I wanna mess it up because it's not hurting anybody. And false doctrine becomes widely accepted as the way things are.

One of the big salvation false doctrines that exists today that's just like, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. It's like, what are you talking about? You're talking about something that's the exact opposite of what you're saying it is.

And churches all over America today, somebody's gonna give an invitation and they're gonna give people the opportunity to come give their life to Jesus. Just come give your life to Jesus. If you wanna be saved, come give your life to Jesus.

Show me that in the Bible one time. You can't, it's not there. Salvation is not a gift we give God. Salvation is a gift God gave us. Wait, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, not the gift of man, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When we give our life to Christ, it is something we do in response for the fact that he has saved us. It's not something we do to receive salvation. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

That's a false doctrine. Give your life to Jesus and you're saved is a false doctrine. It's satanic. It's the exact opposite of what God said. And that's what Satan masters in changing God's word. Are y 'all tracking?

Okay, I don't wanna spend too much time now. Are y 'all ready? Psalms chapter one says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and his law is that he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree. Oh, there it is again. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bring forth his fruit and seed. His life also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Who is this person again that's like a tree? The man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, who doesn't stand in the way of sinners, who doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that they meditate day and night.

He's going to be like a tree. He's gonna be planted like a tree. Where's he planted? By the what? Rivers of waters, which means he's gonna be pliable like a tree. So when the storms of life come, the tree doesn't break.

It just bends with the wind, but it still stands. It still grows. It still produces fruit. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bring forth his fruit and the season. He's productive like a tree.

Why? Because he delights himself in the law of the Lord. He's productive like a tree. He brings forth his fruit and the season. It says, his leaf also shall not wither. That means he's protective like a tree because the leaves of the tree protect the people who are hiding in the shade from the heat of the sun.

So he's protective like a tree, but he's also pretty like a tree because leaves are also pretty. And the scripture says, when you don't do the evil stuff, but you take pleasure and you delight yourself in the law of the Lord, you're gonna be like a tree.

This whole garden thing is becoming a thing that's a thing. And it says, he'll be like a tree planted by rivers of water bringing forth his fruit and the season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

You'll be prosperous like a tree. Now, we gotta pull the weeds, but we gotta water the garden. It's hot in Texas. You don't water your garden, you won't have a garden very long. Hot in Florida too. You gotta water the garden.

Especially when it's not rainy season. In the summertime, you don't have to worry about watering your grass so much. You better water your grass in the wintertime in Florida because it ain't gonna rain.

Well, here's the interesting thing about water and I'm almost done. The interesting thing about us, and the interesting thing about seeking the Lord while he may be. Call me upon him and forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon.

For my ways are not your ways, saith the Lord, neither my thoughts your thoughts, but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Get this part now. Don't miss this part now. Are y 'all listening? As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and it watereth the earth. As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and it watereth the earth.

What comes down from heaven and watereth the earth? The rain and the snow. And it watereth the earth. Wonder why it does that. The rain and the snow come down from heaven and watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud.

The water that comes from heaven makes the ground produce. What is this rain that cometh down like the snow? I mean, what the water that comes down like the rain and the snow from heaven and waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud.

Why does it make it bring forth and bud? That it may give bread to the eater, consumption to the consumer. That it may give seed to the sower, production to the producer. Here's what it says. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

Gardens, the garden, waters the garden with the water of the word of God and it makes it produce. He said, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. My word's not gonna go out and water the soil of the garden and the garden not produce a fruit.

See, the ground has to yield its productivity to the water of the word of God. And when the ground receives the water, the ground has no choice but to produce. Okay, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.

And it, my word, shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. God's word's gonna do what God's word's gonna do. But we have to make sure that we grow in the garden of God while we grow the garden of God within.

Because the interesting thing about this man who is the gardener, this man is not just the gardener. We can see clearly that the man who is the gardener is also the garden. Because these two men who've been called by God and ordained to preach God's truth to God's people, before they can come and water your garden, they gotta water their garden.

And that when they water their garden, they're not watering the leaves. What they used to do is water out of a hose up into a tree. Bro, what you doing? Hey, I was watering the part that only God can see.

See, here's the problem we got with a lot of people today. A lot of people want people looking at them so they can see something, but they didn't do anything when people weren't watching. So when the people are watching, they're not doing anything people wanna watch.

You do when no one's watching. That makes you worth watching when they are. Preparation happens in secret. It happens in the ground where it's deep, where it's damp, where it's dark, where it's difficult.

Not in the light where everybody's like, oh, look at that tree, it's so beautiful. I don't think anybody ever looked at a root. That's the best looking root I've ever seen. I've never seen a root that pretty in my life.

You know why? Because while the root's working in private, when nobody's watching, it's producing the leaves and the fruit that bless people's lives. I was thinking about it this morning. I was thinking Ben was born in the garden of this church.

He grew up in the garden. Now God is calling him to be a gardener. But one of the reasons God's calling him to be a gardener is because when nobody was watching, he was watering his garden. John got saved at a tradeway meeting, which is an extension of this church.

And just like God plucked Adam out of the ground of the Garden of Eden, and he planted a garden there, and then he put him back, now God is doing the same thing in John King's life and in Ben Mitchell's life.

It's such a magnificently beautiful picture that only God himself could paint something this magnificent. All of the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo and all the great painters and artists who've ever lived pale by comparison to this whole idea of growing in the garden of God.

And I wanna challenge all of you to water your garden with the word of God perpetually. I wanna challenge Ben and John and those of us who ordained him, myself and David and John and Raj and Paul, make sure we're watering our garden when nobody's watching so that when we show up to water somebody else's garden, we're watering from a place of saturation and not from a place of drought.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that it is truth. I pray that you would bless the lives and ministries of these two men. Continue to bless the ministry of this church. And we thank you for the fact that even though you have all power, you choose to work through the lives of your children.

And we bless you for it in the name of Yeshua. Amen. Brother David.

A Song of Blessing for the Newly Ordained

Never heard a better charge. May never hear better. I got a new friend, Rick Williams. Met him the last couple of days, mostly yesterday. And I'm gonna ask him to give a charge by song. Would you do it?

Congratulations again to Dan and John. We're so proud of you and happy for you. And it's such a blessing to be here, this experience of warmth in the church, the warmth that you all have. It's a very warm place, very kind people.

And any friends admire, admire the way he conducts himself as a man, he's a beautiful angel. He talks about shoes, Brother David. I just found out you're the man you've been talking about all these years.

I thought this man would really help you when you really needed it. A friend indeed is a friend. A friend indeed is a friend indeed. So, you know what you meant. It's bringing the highest things. I take care of my brother and my friends.

And the song that I wrote, this is an album that I dedicate the song to you today. Gentlemen, because you're about to have an amazing life. It's gonna help a whole lot of people. And it's gonna, you're gonna have a global impact.

And we're just very proud of you.

All my child. You know that I'm trying to figure out what to do. Just take my hand. I'll lead you to a promised land. I'll give you the desires of your heart. Give you the need. And I have the keys to the kingdom.

Yes, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom. Yes, and you are my child. I believe in you. I'll give you the desires of your heart. If you'll let me. And you are my child. I believe in you. Trying to figure out what to do.

Just take my hand. I'll lead you to a promised land. I'll give you the desires of your heart. If you'll let me. And yes, I will do everything through you. I'll give you the desires of your heart. If you'll let me.

The desires of your heart. If you'll let me. I'll give you the desires of your heart. Lord, if you'll let me.

Fellowship, Gratitude, and the Closing Prayer

New friend. He sang a little ditty to me on a stool outside the room and I could hear that voice. And he said, well, I can give a little charge if you want me to tomorrow. I didn't know that was coming.

What, did you? You heard him say, myrna? Bet you've never heard like that. Okay, well sign us up for the record. Wow, thank you so much. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. This has been a beautiful day already.

Charlotte and our family and the other ladies have prepared a meal and special desserts, including my mom's pound cake, which Charlotte mastered. And so has some of my daughters and daughters-in-law, but anyway, it's amazing.

And Mahea is famous worldwide where we live, a little bit south of here for peaches. So we got fresh peaches to put on the pound cake. We got cream to put on the pound cake and strawberries to put on the pound cakes.

So you ain't going anywhere, are you? Right? Okay, so I don't know, have enough seating back there for everybody, but you don't mind standing around and eating either if it's that stuff, right? Okay, so let's have a word of prayer here.

And it's been a marvelous service. Thank everybody that had part in it and thank our young men for giving their hearts and lives to the Lord fully. And what a message, Brother Myron. I'll never hear a charge that good, unbelievable.

All right, Lord, thank you for this amazing day for you are the one who brought it about. You brought every single person here and no one extra, exactly who you wanted here today. And we thank you for that.

Thank you for all of our dear friends and brothers and sisters here to be witnesses of this ordination. And a very important part of it. And we just ask you to go with us into our time of fellowship now.

Bless the meal we're about to have in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You are dismissed.