The Phone Is Ringing. Will You Pick Up?

I thank God for all that He is doing in my life, and in the lives of His people. I am thankful for all of God’s messengers here in service today. It is truly an honor to have you here today.

As I labored on the Word for today, God communicated that He is calling for true transformation--a transformation that transcends space and time. God is doing a new thing and that new thing began when the shifting ended. And, yes, the shifting has ended. God broke into the atmosphere and we are living under an open Heaven. We are living in a time of revival, and God has His messengers communicating that the time is now for the transformation to occur.

God has given me a very specific assignment. One component of it is to be a truth-bearer to drive the kingdom forward. With this assignment, and my calling, as a whole, I am called to deliver the truth with boldness. Over time, I’ve found that this boldness transformed based on what the Holy Spirit directed me to communicate. In this Word, the Holy Spirit has called me to do surgery with precision.

One thing that stands out to me is that with surgery, it may be a bit painful, so as Pastor Clarence Hawkins often says, we must administer some anesthesia beforehand so that we safely do the necessary work….for surgery alone can be more harmful than the issue needing treatment. And then, once the surgery is over, we must provide the proper rehabilitation, after surgery care. So, here is some anesthesia right now...this message is going to be direct and done with precision. But don’t worry, we have more anesthesia on the way.

And, before we leave here today, there will be 5 people changed forever. True transformation will occur in, at least, 5 people.

The subject of tonight’s message is:

"The Phone is Ringing. Will you pick up?"

There is a calling on your life and you aren’t picking up the phone. The phone is ringing and you are just watching it ring. God is calling but you are busy on the phone with the world. Why aren’t you answering? Don’t you see the phone ringing? Can’t you hear it? Can’t you hear the call waiting tone? Or, did you purposely put it on “do not disturb?”

In Matthew 22:14 KJV, it states, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

As I exegized the text, I found that the intention behind this verse in the scripture is that God is calling, but many of those called are choosing to disregard that call. They are choosing to do their own thing instead of answering the call. Moreso, they are choosing to pack up their bags and go home. Or, more devastating, they are choosing to attack everything attached to that call.

So, preacher, where are you getting this from?

Can I teach for a moment?

In the text, Matthew 22:1-14, we have Jesus teaching in the temple. We find who He was talking to by looking at the chapter immediately before--Matthew 21. In Matthew 21:23, it states that Jesus was teaching, and, while He was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him. In Matthew 21:45-46, it shows that the chief priests and the Pharisees were listening in. We also find that there was a crowd of people. We can assume that the crowd was great in number. We can make that determination because the text states that, even though the chief priests and the Pharisees began to look for a way to arrest Jesus all because they realized that He was teaching about them...and not only just teaching…..teaching about them in an unappealing light, they decided not to because they were afraid of the crowd. To be afraid of a crowd, there would have to be a number of them that greatly outnumbered those in their party.

The text shows that there were chief priests...not one...but more than one. The text shows that there were elders….not one….but more than one. The text shows that there were Pharisees….not one...but more than one. When the Bible uses crowd throughout, we often see it accompanied by a quantity that indicates it being great in number. So, the crowd outnumbered the “establishment” greatly. What made their fear intensified is that the “establishment” knew that the crowd considered Jesus God’s prophet.

Implicitly, we can assume the disciples were with Jesus, so we have Jesus, the disciples, the chief priests, the elders of the people, the Pharisees, and a large crowd of people, listening to Jesus’ teachings.

In Matthew 22, it showed that despite the intentions of the chief priests, the elders, and the Pharisees, He continued to teach. We can assume that the teachings continued to be edifying to the large crowd and a slap in the face of the “establishment.” Jesus was good at doing that. He truly had much controversy with the “establishment.”