And here's the plan. Here's the plan. And that's the title of the message. And the plan in your life as a Christian ought to always be submission. And that's what we're going to preach on. Look at verse number 28. It says this. of rain, so is the appearance of the brightness round about. That was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. And he said unto me, Son of man, stand up on thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and he set me upon my feet, and I heard him that spake unto me. Now, any of you that know Ezekiel, we've just been vision of something, a man, that I can't even imagine in my head, that Ezekiel saw. Men like Dilward are sitting down and read each verse and drawing a picture of it, a man. But you can look it up online and see different pictures of it and different things like that. But without seeing that, I wouldn't make heads or tails out of it. There's a lot of prophetic stuff in there, I would assume, a lot of different things. But they all point to the fact that God is getting ready to judge the nation of Israel. And we've preached a lot. I actually haven't in the past couple of years, but man, I got on a kick there for a while and preached on that Babylonian captivity all the time just because I knew the elements of it and made the intros easy in my messages. But you understand that God allowed, because of the rebellion of Israel that Jeremiah talks about over there, You understand that God was allowing a Gentile world power, the Babylonians, under the control of Nebuchadnezzar, to come in and destroy the nation of Israel and put them in a 70-year bondage. Very instrumental, very important in the Old Testament in understanding that. The world powers and how God allowed them into that captivity for 70 years, amen? And some of the prophets, you have pre-exilic prophets, men that prophesied before they exiled. You have prophets of the exile that prophesied during that time, like Daniel, Ezekiel, these different men. And then you have post-exilic prophets. And a lot of your Old Testament, a lot of the history of the nation of Israel is gathered around that Babylonian captivity. So understanding that, understanding how it happened, is instrumental to understanding the Old Testament. Now, that captivity happened in three sieges, amen? There were sieges upon Jerusalem as they came in to take different people. They took the important people in the first one, and different people in the other ones, and things like that. Daniel was taken out. in the first wave, I believe, and different things like that, but there was a number of years I don't have right in front of me between those sieges, a good amount of years, five, ten years, however many it took. We can look that up afterwards. But those first two had already happened. So you can understand if we had waves of attack on America, how it would be, amen? You have a nation attack us, infiltrate us, take our presidents, take our governors, amen? Displace them, put them in another country, amen? And then that happened several times, and I know we're that vulnerable. Well, here's the third siege that's getting ready to happen. And God calls this man, Ezekiel, to be the man of God that is gonna prophesy to these people, amen. He calls them, him, to do that, amen. And here he is, he's coming to prophesy and to preach unto them, and that's what's happening in our text. Now, let me just say this, we believe here that God truly calls a man to preach. Now, there's groups of men that believe doctrinally, just like us, that believe desire, and all of a sudden, basically, it's a good thing, it's a Bible verse, amen. But they'll say, that means if you just want to do it, get out and do it, amen, and give it a shot, and see if, now, if you're struggling with it, You can't get that thing nailed down. I may say, get up, teach a class. Get up and give us your testimony. Get up and give us a devotion. Let's see if God gets on you and unctionizes you and uses you in a specific way and let God direct you through that. A lot of these men just say, well, you want to be a preacher, that's a good thing. Let's go do it. And we believe there's a legitimate call on that. I'm telling you, when I was called to preach, I ran from it for four years. The first year through that was me trying to settle in my heart if that's really what was happening. I ran around with some of the greatest evangelists and preachers that you know of. We ran around with C.T. We ran around with Cody Thorne. We ran around with Brent Carter. We ran around with these different men because of just where we was birthed into the body at, amen? But running around, I wanted to make sure it wasn't me and my flesh wanting to be the cool guy, wanting to be the leader, and wanting to do all that. And then I wanted to sort that out in my heart. Once I got past that, it was a fear and a battle of the flesh that's been inside of me and wanting to do, you know, just fear of stepping out and doing what God called me to do. But then finally the day that I decided to submit to God in my life and submission to what He wanted, Man, I'm telling you, it was cataclysmic. I was standing in the middle of the field in Bedea, Georgia at 4 a.m. in the morning, up and tore up, weeping all night, talking to the sky. And I'm telling you, I'm just on edge, amen. I was out there getting ready to change my entire life, amen. And I'm out there praying, God, if I feel like this in the morning, I'll do it, I'll do it. And man, when I made that decision out there, I'm just telling you, it was about as powerful as my salvation testimony. There was such heavy conviction on me for that call in my life. Then there was such a bat on my flesh trying to fight that call. It was about like the day I got saved, amen. until I submitted to God, amen. So we believe in a call to preach this morning. But God has things for all of us to do. Serving, soul winning, studying, doing the different things that we see in the Bible that we ought to do in the body of Christ. And I believe the process is the same. He would encourage you through the spirit of God in you, and you have to make a decision to submit to what God wants you to do in your life. And listen, if it's something big, and everything we do for the Lord is big, and the devil don't want you to do it, and the devil's going to fight you to do it, and that flesh and that spirit inside of you is going to have a battle, amen? There's going to be a fight that will ensue. inside of you. So I want to preach on that this morning. And Ezekiel submitted to the call of God in these verses that we're reading. I believe it's very similar to when a man submits to God for a call in his life or when we just submit to God to be in obedience and submission to His service. Very similar to what, I see three things here that we see as God was calling Ezekiel to serve him that we can see in our lives, amen. Father, we love you. Lord, I pray, I know you got this message for somebody today. And God, I pray you'd speak to their heart, dear Lord. Maybe somebody's been fighting, amen, about what to do. whether to serve you, God. I pray you'd speak to them this morning. God, I pray you'd use them. God, I pray they haven't wasted enough time, too much time. And God, I pray you'd get on them and convince them this morning to follow you and submit to your authority. Father, we love you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. All right, so this is gonna be a quick message. We're gonna go about it early, y'all. Y'all gonna be everybody to the Mexican restaurant. It's all right, German 924 hours on this. Let me use the hospital people. I think there's a Christian on here to help me. I think so. Huh? They don't have a host. They need a living host. Amen. All right. Number one, there ought to be a direct submission to God in my life. A direct submission. Look in verse 28 down there near the end. It says that when I saw it, I fell upon my face. He fell on his face. Now when God showed Ezekiel this vision of judgment coming on Judah and told him what to do, the first thing he did was fell prostrate on the floor on his face. Perfect picture of submission in your mind. Some of us won't even get up and get on an altar, and I know we always got an excuse, we always got some reason. Some of us won't even kneel down on an altar and say, all right, I submit to you, God, what the preacher just preached. I want to confirm that in my heart. I want to do that. This is me showing my submission and agreeance with the pastor and the message that was preached. And I'm here to commit to you, Lord. Some of you, I'll never do that in your entire life. But here's a man that threw himself prostrate on the floor, which in the Bible and any other time, bowing in prostration, is a picture of complete and total surrender and submission to God. And I believe, falling on his face, here's what he was saying. He's saying, God, whatever it is you want me to do, I'm going to do it. No matter what it is, no matter how hard it is, no matter whether I'm successful, no matter whether I'm popular, I'm just gonna do what you told me to do. Basically what he was saying is, I'll go preach to that no good bunch of people that you call your own, that won't listen to you, won't do what you want, and ain't gonna listen to nobody, I'll go preach to them. He had it as bad as Jeremiah did. Jeremiah knew that them people weren't gonna respond to him. and he was gonna preach and spend his whole life doing exactly what God wanted and not see very many results at all. But he said, you know what, this thing ain't about me and it ain't about growing something, it ain't about that. I'm gonna do exactly what God tells me to do. They were gonna continue to live the way they were gonna live until judgment came. But listen, when you're in submission to God, you're not gonna analyze everything. You're not going to look at it and analyze and make a fleshly decision based on proposed results. That's how the world works, y'all. You've talked to men, you can tell how worldly they are. When you make a decision to serve God and step out and do something, you can really tell where their mind is or where who's winning the battle, the flesh inside of them. Because when you're in submission to God, you're not going to analyze things and make fleshly based decisions. You ain't going to analyze it and see if you're going to be a good orator before you decide, OK, now I'll preach. You're not going to compare yourself to the other preachers around and say, well, I can't go like him. I can't go like him. I ain't going to. That's what the devil's doing in my mind when I first was being called to preach. You ain't going to do all that. You're just going to be in submission to God and do what he wants you to do. You're not going to compare your singing ability to somebody else and say, well, if I can't sing that good, I'm not going to get up there and sing because if people may poke at me, they may laugh at me, they may do this. You're not going to do that. Listen, you're not going to chicken out when God tells you to witness somebody and tell yourself you just don't know enough, amen? What we've got to do is be in complete and total submission to God no matter what he tells us to do. I don't even know if God can use every single one of us. Every single one of us, in the room, in a mighty way. Ain't nobody written off, ain't nobody. Listen, God can use us all. Now I ain't talking about God throwing us all to be prophets, preachers, amen. I'm saying God can use everyone to help build a church. God can use everyone to help build a family. God can help everyone to see somebody saved. God can help everyone to help our worship time and service be tremendous. God can help everyone to help grow the children in the church. God can use everyone to make our homes spiritual. He can use everyone to help edify one another. That's what the body of Christ must do, is to edify each other. God can use all of us. When we're in submission to God as a church, the benefits are endless. The problem is most Christians will never fully submit themselves to God. We'll give a little bit, but we'll never give the full thing. And I don't, I mean, I don't even have to pick on nobody. I don't do anything. You just need to analyze your life. Look at how much time you give to God. What, 5%? 2%, 2.5% in services, and you calculate the hours. And if you read 20 or 30 minutes a day, what, about 5% to 6% of your life actually goes to God? And I know we can't just all hop up and go to every revival and find them all, and maybe you run out of them. There's some times we run out of revivals, and we sit at home bored to death. Man, there's a lot of stuff we could do that we don't. You're right. I mean, when you add up how much time, I mean, just take how much time you give to God. Bible reading, prayer, serving God, church time, all that, and just look at how much time you spend making money. That's right. I know we gotta make money to live, y'all, but look how much time you spend on recreation. God forbid your TV time outweighs how much you serve God for a week. All you've got to do is look at that and say, God, I want to give you more. I want to submit to you. God, I'll give you a little bit of my talent, but I want to use it for my benefit. There's multitudes of men and women in the body of Christ that have talents, that have gifts from the Spirit of God, that have abilities, that have traits and things they can do and know how to do. And they have never once tried to find a way to use them for the body of Christ. Never once try to find a way to take what they do for a living or what they know, maybe not as a living, but as a hobby or something like that. Never try to use it for the body of Christ. I'm not saying in church, I know we can't all come and pray, we can't all do certain things, we can't all do that. Hey man, but never try to say, how can I bless somebody spiritually with what God has gifted me and enabled me to do for a living and in my life? You want to see God do something amazing in your family and in your life, you're going to have to decide that God's will is the most important thing in your life, and you want to give Him that, and you've got to look for ways to give Him the things you can do, amen? It's called submission to God, amen? And not worshipping yourself, but worshipping God, amen? And God gives us a perfect example. I mean, I got a... You can watch some preachers in different places take the trades and things they used to do and use them in the body of Christ now. And I ain't gonna start going through them all, but I just know men that take the things they used to do and they use them in the body of Christ. You can too. And really a good comparison of how this thing works when we're talking about submission is when you look at a real biblical family. wants to be spiritual. Now this thing, I understand this family can get off kilter if one person's out of whack. Daddy's out of whack. Mommy's out of whack. Kids are in utter rebellion. I understand that. But man, I'm telling you, when you've got a daddy that loves God and wants to be spiritual and wants to lead that family, and he's got a spiritual woman that'll see that he's doing everything he's doing because he loves God, it's not hard for her to submit to his authority because she knows that's God's authority through him, amen? And then the children see that mom and dad in submission to God, amen, and the woman in submission to the man. They see that, and yes, there's going to be times of rebellion in their heart, but as they grow up under that, they'll understand. This stuff ain't in here just for funsies. Y'all understand that, amen? It's not just opinion, but when you run a family, like God said to run a family, I know you may have haywire things with the children and stuff, but as a whole, they're going to see God in that family. And listen, it's going to change that family. And you just might end up with a family that loves God and wants to serve God, and has God as the center of their family, where not only mom and dad want to be in submission to God and follow Him, but the children want to follow God as well, amen? And that's what ends up happening when there's submission in the family, and it's all because of love. It's the same thing that God loves us much more than that familial love that we see in a family. He sent his only begotten son to die for us so that we could be saved. And listen, that love, because he loves us more than that. Listen, amen, hallelujah. Man, if you won't submit to God, there ain't no way you're gonna submit to that husband. But if you'll submit that to husband and therefore submit to God, amen, what can God do? So what about us when we see how much God loves us? Why won't we just say, I'll do anything you want me to, God. I'll submit to you. I want you more than money. I want you more than a career. I want you more than all them toys and all that so-called happiness. God, you want me to preach? I'll preach. Why is it such a fight? I don't know why it was, that's carnal. God, you want me to sing, I'll sing. Boy, that's a fight in my life, too. God, you want me to serve, I'll serve. God, you want me to come work, physical labor, I'll do it. God, you want me to come do this, do that, I'll do it. Direct submission. Then there's a direct plank. Ezekiel 2 and 1 said, he said unto me, said unto me, stand upon thy feet, and I'll speak unto thee. As soon as Ezekiel submitted to God in submission, God said, stand up, get ready to serve. I'll tell you what to do, is what he said. God's getting ready to tell you exactly what to say. Signed sermons to preach, everything you needed. I'm just getting ready to be supplied. That's my next point. I'm just telling you there was a direct plan. There was a direct plan. God's always got better plans than you do. God will do the same thing for you if you'll submit to him and say, God, I want to serve you. I want to do everything you want. Just give yourself to him. Just open yourself up. Don't even say, I know what it is. I know what my talents are. Say, God, whatever you want me to do, I'll serve you. I'll do it. God will do the same thing for you. The most stressful times of my life was when that battle of the flesh and spirit was going on inside of me in my call to preach and my call to pastor, if you will. Both of them, I can remember, I felt like I was losing my mind. Here's the fact, Satan didn't want me to serve the Lord. When I look back at both of them, I struggle with what he want me to do. But I would not let go of what I wanted and what I planned. You understand, your life's a plan. We're supposed to submit to God's plan. But most Americanized mom and dads have their own plan, not God's plan. And they will implement that plan in your life unknowingly, not really on purpose of overriding God, but that one's got to back up. Well, we want you to serve God and do things for God in your life, but here's what you really got to do. You really got to do this. My whole life was a plan, y'all. I mean, that's crazy. But thank God I had a good parent out there pushing me to do some things. And it was good, good things, amen. But I mean, I had a plan in my life. I worked. There was a six-year plan that went down at Marshall University. Six years. And mom taught me how to go into chemistry pre-med. I had a 3.4, something like that, GPA. microbiology, amen, and molecular biology and organic chemistry. Y'all love that stuff, don't you? I'm in there reading and trying to do that stuff, reading chemistry books and all that. I had good grades and all that. That was the plan. Just had a plan to make it. And I didn't think that plan out. Mama said, because what you scored on your ACT, you need to go be a doctor. I said, OK. OK. I didn't care. I just wanted to party like an idiot. But I was lost. Okay, so I go, there I am third, third and a half, fourth year. I'm like, well, this is stupid. I don't like sick people. I don't like none of this stuff. I memorized the whole kid on the table, man. I said, I don't think I care about somebody's atomic mass. Chance, you probably love that stuff. I jumped on the business, shifted my plan a little bit. Then my plan became all about money. It was about money. I didn't want to help nobody. I didn't want to help nobody not be sick. I just went to college and said, OK, y'all can make a lot of money. I was dumb. I didn't think I'd pay all that insurance. So I said, I can pay a whole lot more money when we're busy. So I took over the business. Got in that finance. My whole life was a plan about finance. What's that? Money. That's my whole thought process was money, money, money, money, money. Amen? So there in six years. Don't make fun of me. I never dropped from class. I never failed class. I just went six years. I got enough credits to graduate twice. I got two minors. So what? People try to say, ha, ha, ha, you was in school six years. Yeah, I'm twice as educated as you, goofball. I wanted a career, Josh. I wanted security. I wanted money. I wanted all that. I had a plan, man. I wanted prestige. I wanted toys. Then I got into that banking world. That's all. I read how to win friends and earn influence, whatever it's called, Carnegie. I was reading all this stuff. I was passing insurance exams. I love that. I'd sit there and read that insurance paper, or them books, and I'd probably go and leave the manager's sub-trust pass on my first drive on my 6601, the health and life, amen. And I loved that stuff. That's what I did. I spent my life doing that. You know what all that was? That was a plan for me. That was a plan for my money. That was a plan for my life, amen. Right. That's why it got so hard when you got upset. I know you've been working on that six years. I know you've been doing all that. I know you fucked your way up all through SunTrust. You're in the top 2% of the company. I know, I know you turned away Airman's job. I know I've been making half a million right now. I know it. He said, I know that. But I've got a plan for you. And I'm sure it's better. And there was such a fight, man, I remember Kevin Boyce calling me and me sitting on that porch. This is, what, 10 years ago. I remember sitting on that porch, that's the pastor. Same thing when I was being called the preacher of the fight, but I remember that pastor was sitting there. Old Jimmy Taylor sitting down and said, we want a full-time pastor. We want you to work. I'm sitting there and I'm saying it all, Jim, I'm saying it all. This or this. Kevin's talking to me on the porch. The day I decide, Carter, I'm pacing that porch, am I gonna do this? It was almost hard to get out of the mouth. I told Kevin, I'm on that swing. I said, man, I'm gonna do it, I'm coming, I'm coming. I'm telling my boss tomorrow that I'm gonna resign. I'm gonna quit in a month, and I'm coming. I'm Kevin, he's such a good guy. He said, are you sure? I told him, he said, you got them kids you got, are you sure? I said, yeah, buddy. But when I said those words, when I decided I was going to do what God wanted me to do, it was like a peace passed over me. I quit worrying about the money. I quit worrying about all that. And I thought, this is going to be amazing. This is going to be amazing. I don't know what God wants you to do. Everybody ain't going to preach. But we all are called to serve God in some capacity. And I don't know what God wants you to do, get better somewhere, help in the Sunday school, sing, get in the choir. preach, give devotions, go with these men to the shelters, do physical, I don't know what it is, but I'm telling you, when you just decide to do it, there'll be something that'll come over you. I mean, it's like God approved TV. That's the right decision. Submission of God is the right decision. Amen? And he's got a direct plan for you. And lastly, here's what'll happen. There'll be a divine enabler, a divine enabler. Y'all know how God is. And we almost feel like you've got a sense of humor, Debra. It'll make you do something. You ain't got no clue how to do it. And Ezekiel said this in chapter 2, verse 2, and the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me. Now, we understand pneumatology. Doctor and the Holy Ghost is a little bit different than Old Testament. But you've got the spirit of God already in you. God will speak to that spirit, and he will enable you through the spirit just like he did Ezekiel. So when God wants you to do something, you do it. I'm telling you, when I was being called a priest, I was sitting there thinking, there ain't no way. There ain't no way I can do this. There is absolutely no way. I've been told that we just run with some of the best preachers around. And I'm sitting there thinking, there's no way I can preach like that. Of course, that's not even what's back, but you've got to flesh it. Most, most y'all may not even know this stuff. Jeff wasn't there yet. Blake and Hannah may have been there, but y'all was just little kids. Y'all was young. You was probably still a big football star. Just met Hannah. I remember going over to your, uh, somewhere in Winfield, man, over at Long Ridge people. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, y'all was just kids. It seems like a lot, but it's not. I never testified before. Never went to the hospital. Maybe once or twice when I was grabbed by a car at a 437, she lost it at that time. You got saved by being called a priest. You remember that? I told my pastor, do not call me to pray out loud. So if one of y'all come and tell me that, I will do it on purpose. Because I know where I was, and I know where you need to be. I didn't want to do it. I said, do not pray. Do not ask me to pray out loud, because I was a finance guy, because I managed a bank. So then I ended up taking up offering, and I'd be standing there, and they'd look at me, and they'd be like. I had to tell a preacher. I said, man, I can't. I can't. I'll fall apart. Do you think I'd ever sung in front of anybody? That's what I started doing is when I was running from that call to preach. So about, well, 13 years out, I sang right before I submitted to preach. I didn't practice hundreds of times. Hundreds of times I'd practice. I'd tell preachers, Jimmy Atkins come up and say, you gonna say that? No, no, I can't. I was not a guy that wanted to stand in front of anybody and say a thing. I'm sitting there saying, God, why would you even put, that's why I ran so long. I thought, why in the world am I even doing this? This is weird. Look, what was happening was God was calling me to something I couldn't do in my flesh. God does things like that. Amen. You know, there's a verse over in 1 Corinthians 1.26, one of the first things I preach. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty. and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. See, if you're a great singer and you get things for God, your flesh is gonna get the glory. But when you stumble around and get up there, man, thank God for that, I'd never sang if, sorry, people couldn't sing, Halle. I mean, I'd have never thought. 12 years ago, we're going to record an album tomorrow. And yeah, it's primarily because she's awesome, but I get to be a part of it. Amen! It'll help us get booked. Never thought I'd stand up and lead singing at a camp meeting for 300 people. And my daughter over there playing, never thought, in my mind, did you ever think, bummer me. I can imagine raising Bubba. I thought he was going to be a professional eating man, eh man? Win that hot dog competition. That boy's going to put down a whole piece. I watched him. That's a gift. That's a talent. We got to find somebody to use that for the Lord's will. But could you imagine him in Idaho preaching? No, he's in Arizona preaching today. Then he's going up to Sam Gibson, Idaho preaching. He's traveling all across the world. You think they'd have said, Bo? What do you think if Bo would have come out and said, mama, I'm going to go be a great porter. And I'm going to speak to the masses. They're going to follow what I say and listen to me. You said, what? Shut up, boy. But God will take people that can't do something. Amen. He sure will. And give them the ability to do it. Amen. Don't you ever not listen to God and what he wants, because you're scared in your flesh that you can't do something. You listening, little girl? Jennifer wants me to teach by myself. She wants me to talk to the three kids I teach in piano already and all that, and I'm too scared to dance. That's why God puts you in there to do it. Amen. That's why God calls when he calls to preach. That's why God's putting on your heart Whatever he is, he's putting on your heart to do right now. Not because you're going to be able to do it in the flesh, but because you're going to do it, he's going to get glory out of you. He's going to use you. And that's the best place you'll ever be in a Christian life. And you'll have more peace and more joy just foaming around and messing up and trying to do what God told you to do and doing your best at it than you'll ever have doing what you're perfect at. Amen? Amen. Come say something about the will of God. I want you to try your best to be in the will of God in your life. Amen. Whatever he's telling you to do today. I put this on my heart for some reason. Amen. I haven't preached on stuff like this in a long time. We've been preaching on different kinds of stuff. Why don't you follow God in your life? Why don't you try to be in his will? Step out. Don't be scared. Step out. Do what God wants you to do. It don't have to be local church, honestly. I mean, maybe you do something at a job. Start giving out testimonies. Start talking to people. Do something different, amen? Just try to follow God in everything that you do. Amen? I'm going to pray. Give you an opportunity to pray. She's going to sing a song. So you just come if you'd like. And submit to it. I mean, you ain't got nothing. You don't know. I know. I just preached to you today. I want to say, Lord, I want to Let's stay in this together. Let's stay in this love. Thank you. We love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. 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