Faithfulness | Pastor Mark Ward

[0:00] Y'all, June the 1st of 2025, I will be here 20 years at this place. And I got to tell you something that's really crazy.

[0:16] I was supposed to preach here two weeks ago on goodness. I think Pastor Ed or somebody, anyway. But Pastor Landon called me up and he said, man, we've had to change the pace.

[0:31] We had to change it up. And I need you to preach in two weeks. I said, okay, let's go. And he said, but I want you to change yours. I said, okay.

[0:43] He said, because you need to speak on faithfulness. He said, if somebody's been somewhere doing what they're supposed to do for 20 years, I think that person ought to speak on faithfulness.

[0:56] I want to tell you something that changed my life. And it's changed my life for two weeks now. And it's eat me up. Because again, for me, I base everything on everybody else.

[1:12] I don't think about Mark. I don't ever try to heap any praise. And even when you try, you ain't going to heap praise on me and me stand there and take it. I'm going to always push it back to God.

[1:23] I'm going to always push it back to somebody else. But I got to be honest with you. Being faithful is not something that everybody does. And that everybody has an understanding.

[1:35] And I believe tonight, God has given me something. Now, here's the thing. If I ain't done at 8 o'clock and y'all leave, I'm going to hurt somebody. See, I ain't nice like the rest of these people.

[1:46] I'm going to whoop you. Okay? But here's the thing. I believe God showed me something in of all people, Jesus, that changed my life this week that I think is going to help you.

[1:59] And I hope it does. What we're going to do is this. I hadn't even planned on doing it. And that's why I love the Holy Ghost. Because he always changes me. And I'd rather listen to him than y'all any day.

[2:11] So these notes are all well. And you know, that precious, precious angel of mine, Lisa, says, just read your notes. Sticks to your notes. Because what you've done, what you got on these pages is really good.

[2:24] But I can already tell you, I'm way past this. But we're going to try to get back to it. But I want to talk to you about me. Okay? I want to talk to you about me right now.

[2:35] Because, again, Pastor Steve said something one time that just, you know, you can't take somebody down a road that you have never traveled. I can't teach you anything that I haven't been on or I haven't done.

[2:50] So I'm expecting what I'm saying is changing my life because right now I'm in the middle of faithfulness. I'm in the middle of being faithful when I shouldn't be.

[3:01] I'm in the middle of being faithful when there's calamity and when there's trouble. And, man, I got to tell you something. That is the hardest place in the world to be.

[3:13] It's to be in the middle of just the absolute battle. And, listen, here's the cool thing. I know you. I tell y'all all the time, y'all are a lot better Christians than I am.

[3:25] So it's amazing to me how I can be who I am and who I know God has made me. And I can still be in a spot where the devil can bust me in the mouth and I stand there and let him.

[3:39] Okay? So faithfulness is going to go a little bit more than just being dependable. Because that's what Webster says. It means you're dependable.

[3:49] You show up on time. You do what you're supposed to do. Can you understand that faithfulness goes beyond that? See, all that little stuff is what you're supposed to already do. And, man, I had the most beautiful example in my daddy.

[4:05] My parents were, we've been in the ministry our whole life. We don't know anything else. Okay? My dad worked in a furniture store. And those times in my life were the ones where I saw a man get up every day and not like his job.

[4:23] Hated his job. Hated what he was doing because he knew God had called him to bigger. But what he did, he had to have a paycheck.

[4:36] He had to have a life for his family. And they were not going to be wanting. So this man put himself down and went into a job every day that he hated.

[4:48] Went into a job every day, but he was faithful. And here's the thing about Bill Ward that you didn't know. On time, we were 30 minutes before it started. I don't care what it was.

[5:00] It wasn't just church. It was anything. We go into the grocery store. We go into the grocery store at 6 o'clock. 5.30, we're in the grocery store. That's Bill Ward.

[5:12] That's how we did it. See, and it's not just something that the man said. It's something that he lived. And it's something that I saw every single day in a man who I am trying to be like.

[5:25] I've spent all these years growing up trying to be just like that dude. Because I have one of those. I have a hero. My mama was the one.

[5:35] She's the one that kept us in the straight and narrow. My daddy was the one that would stand there and say, it'll be all right. I know it hurts right now. He had no idea how bad that would hurt. That spanking was nasty.

[5:48] He had no idea. But this man who was raised by a hard dude. See, back in them days, man, it's hard stuff. My daddy, I'll tell on him, he's 82 years old.

[6:01] So it was hard. He was raised. Them people back then, they didn't care nothing about. You didn't get an I love you. You didn't get any of that stuff. You kidding me? You hold my mom off for more than five seconds.

[6:12] She's pushing you off saying, that's enough. That's a hard woman. That's the way they were raised. It's the way it was. But my grandma was one of the most precious people I've ever known in my life. Ever.

[6:24] Ever. And my daddy grew up just like her. Because he was going to make sure he never grew up like that dude. Isn't that funny? So here's my thing. I don't, I ain't there 30 minutes before.

[6:37] But I've told all my kids growing up, if you're 10 minutes before time to be there. If you ain't there 10 minutes before, you're late. If you ain't there 10 minutes before, you're late.

[6:52] And let me tell you something. Ain't no, I hate to go anywhere late. All y'all that come in and think, how you doing? So glad you get to see me 20 minutes late. I don't understand that.

[7:04] I don't, I can't do it. But understand that what I'm talking about tonight has nothing to do. That's a great thing to be. It's on time. But that's not the faithfulness I'm talking about tonight.

[7:17] Okay? But here's what I am talking about. I want you to go to Hebrews 12. I want to tell you, I want to tell you some of this good stuff that I wrote down here.

[7:28] All of these years of my life and what I'm doing, especially the last five to six, has been the hardest of my entire life. I don't tell people my business.

[7:41] I don't want people to know my business because it's my business and it ain't none of yours. Okay? But just so I can be transparent with you, I started a business when I had gone a year without being paid.

[7:54] I don't know about any of y'all, but when you start a business with no money, you're pretty much stupid. I'm just going to be honest.

[8:05] See, I tell you, there's a lot of people that are really nice and precious up here, and I ain't one of them. I'm just going to tell you straight. You start a business with no money, you're stupid. I don't know what to tell you.

[8:17] But I did it. Guess what? I'm stupid. But I knew in my heart that I was doing the right thing.

[8:28] And here's the thing. When you're standing there in front of your family and your friends and these people that you love and know look you straight in the face and say, why are you still working there?

[8:41] Why do you still get up every morning and get ready and go to a job and you know they're already figuring out how they're not going to pay you?

[8:51] Why would you do that? I've got to be honest with you. I have no idea why. And I didn't do it just one year. I didn't do it just two years. I've done it for the last five to six years.

[9:04] And I've got to be honest with you. All of y'all that can, all you grown men that can go in there and do that and not have a job and sit there and let some woman take care of you, and I ain't got no time for you.

[9:17] I've got to be honest with you. The most humiliating thing in the world is to have a woman pay all your bills. I don't care. I'm sorry. I'm not one of those guys that's going to sit here and bash women.

[9:31] I love you, baby girl. Go get your career. Go do what you do. Make the money. But if you've got a man that'll sit on his tail and he will sit there while you go work, man, hurry up and run away from him.

[9:45] It ain't God keeping you there. I'm just telling you. I'm telling you right now. So Mark, don't function well that way. And I never have because faithfulness is something that I know.

[9:59] And the way I'm faithful is I get up every day and I go do my job. And here's the thing that I kept telling myself every single day. God, I'm doing this unto you. I'm not doing this unto this man.

[10:12] Because there was one man looked me in the face and said right then, he looked at me and he said, Mark, no man ever, ever is going to pay you enough or be enough for you to do whatever.

[10:26] That's why you don't work for man. That's the reason they're not your source. They're not the one that brings money to you. It's an almighty God. So I worked that way.

[10:37] That's the way I do. And that's the way I operated. Whether it was bad, whether it was wrong, might have been. Still to this day, I couldn't tell you why I did, but I just knew I was doing the right thing.

[10:49] I just knew I was doing the right thing. And here's the crazy part of it. I found joy in places that I didn't realize I was supposed to be finding joy.

[11:00] Let me tell you why. Watch this. I'm going to say, let me read this nice little stuff that I wrote because it's really pretty and I want y'all to hear it. I learned in that time if I focus on success as the outcome, if I focus on success being the outcome and what I'm after, I bypass the blessing of being faithful.

[11:25] I'm going to say it again. Me, Mark, was focusing on success. It was essential. It was those things. As long as I said the right thing and did the right thing and do the whole thing, that's what I'm supposed to be doing.

[11:41] And success is what I'm supposed to have. But the problem was I was bypassing the ability to get the blessing of faithfulness.

[11:53] Those expectations were essential and I missed the beauty of faithfulness of other people and of God. I believe right now that in Hebrews 12, 2, Jesus shows us something that changed my life.

[12:13] It's a big deal here. So Hebrews, verse 2, Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.

[12:32] Okay. Excuse me. Jesus found joy in the cross. How in the world can you find joy in devastation?

[12:50] There's not devastation any more devastating than death. I don't know. Maybe y'all know something I don't. Y'all look at me like, Oh, you didn't know that?

[13:01] Okay. Sorry. But I'm going to tell you this. That means there must be joy that comes from faithfulness in the difficulty.

[13:12] That's what Jesus was showing us that even in the midst of whatever it may be. Man, you have all kinds of troubles. All kinds of troubles.

[13:23] And I just wrote some of them down here where we're talking about, you know, It might be a rocky marriage. Had one of them. Had two of them. Sorry, Robin.

[13:35] Don't laugh at that. Yeah. Somebody as precious as me has been married three times now. And I love this girl to pieces.

[13:46] And I looked her in the face and I'll say it in front of y'all. If you leave, I will shoot you in the face with a bazooka. So none of y'all can be none of them that they interview and say, He was such a great guy.

[13:59] I don't know what he was. I never knew he'd shoot her in the face with a bazooka for sure. Y'all can't say that because you know I will. But a rocky marriage.

[14:14] Some other things that might come against you that you might be in the middle of is parenting a wayward child. And it don't matter if they're teens. It don't matter what they are.

[14:26] I mean, it don't matter how old they are. Your child's still wayward and still not of God. Man, it messes. It will mess with you. And I don't know about y'all, but I ain't real good at coming in here and acting like nothing's going on.

[14:42] You're going to see me. You'll read me from the get. If I'm struggling with my kid, what's fun is people that's been around me forever? Faith McCroskey is one of them.

[14:52] Sure. What's wrong with you? What's going on? Get away from me, Faith. And get. No, I said, I don't want to do this now.

[15:04] And I mean, I'm getting ready to do praise and worship. I don't need to be crying. Cause you asking me what's wrong with me. There's a lot wrong with me, Faith. Come on. I just, I love her to pieces.

[15:14] There's these people in this place. If you don't know them and you don't reach out to know them, you need to. I'm telling you, there's some God people in here that are fun to hang out with boy.

[15:24] And they will change your life. I mean, I'm not kidding, but other things that you come in here, family feuds. You might even be caring for elderly parents.

[15:36] I mean, I'm thinking now, you know, there's all kinds of things that you're in the midst of, and it doesn't matter if I think it's bad or not.

[15:48] If it's bad to you, that's where we're at. I'm not going to belittle where you at, but I'm going to tell you something. Jesus said, we can find joy in the middle of it.

[15:59] If he can find joy in the difficulty to go and find success in death, my dear God, then that's a plan for me to understand.

[16:11] He will bring me out. I don't have to act like nothing's happening and be all, be all churchy when I get here and y'all just whatever. I mean, I know how some of y'all are.

[16:23] Don't even lie to me. It's just, I mean, I'm serious. You got to put your church on. You see me in Walmart. It's the craziest thing, man, to watch people instantly.

[16:34] They'd be just cussing, tearing up their kids. And I'll come around the corner. Oh, hello, brother. It's so good to see you. Come on, man. I heard you cussing two rows ago.

[16:46] It's okay. It's okay. I just rather you be real. If you're in the middle of it, let's be in the middle of it and let's do what we can to get out of it.

[16:58] Right? Can we? Think about the difficult situations that require faithfulness. All of those things. As I look back right now and I look back over that and I see what we did as a family and I see what I'm doing now in the middle of this thing where we used to be standing.

[17:20] Man, we have traveled 18 hours one time. We traveled 18 hours to get to Pennsylvania and this church wanted us to come.

[17:30] They were going and we had a big revival that was going to start, but we had to go through this place to get there. Anyway, long story short, daddy had spent everything but $27.

[17:41] That's all he had in his pocket when we went to this church. We were depending on this church to give us money, gas to get to the revival where God's going to bless us, you know.

[17:55] And I'm watching this dude. I'm 14 years old, bro. Okay. I'm 14 years old and I'm watching. I know what this man's got in his pocket. And I love all of this.

[18:09] I love Jesus with all my heart and he knows I do. But man, I want to tell you, it's hard to be a 14 year old kid and say, what are we going to do? Well, I got to get a Big Mac after this thing.

[18:19] We got the $27. What's going on? We go to this church. We sing, do our thing, do what we do, slinging babies, having a big time, get there. And the pastor comes up to us and said, yeah, brother, we want to bless you.

[18:34] And this is 1980. And he hands us a check for $25. He had a church of 200 and something people there.

[18:48] And handed us a check for $25. And I watched Bill Ward never miss it. And he's looked at me, looked at that man. And he said, he go, watch this.

[18:58] I'm going to sign this. You need this worse than we do. And I'm standing behind him and I'm going, bro, what are you doing?

[19:09] What are you doing? I mean, 25, 27, we have, we might be all right. You know, we can, we can, we can get gas and go.

[19:20] That's before gas was four or $5 a gallon. I got an amen on the four or $5 a gallon. No, but the point is, is this, I watched a man be faithful to God.

[19:31] I watched a man completely and not even, it wasn't even sarcastic. For me, it would have been completely sarcastic.

[19:45] Take this, bro. Yeah. I won't tell you what you can do with it, but I'll tell you what you should do. No, but again, that's where it's a different thing.

[19:56] But I saw a man and I see myself now in the same time. I watched this fast forward to the story. As soon as we got done packing up, we go to the gas station to put that $27 in the tank.

[20:11] When we get there and we're filling up the tank, I mean, I'll never forget it. What are we going to do, daddy? He said, not even worried.

[20:22] God will always be faithful. God will always be faithful. And I said, man, how can you say God will always be faithful when we have nothing?

[20:36] And see, people don't understand that when they see all the stuff, see these traveling ministries, he's coming in and bless God. They got it going on. No, they ain't got nothing going on. We stood there, pump the gas in and I reached for the handle.

[20:51] And all of a sudden the car with a trailer work van comes pulling right up to the, right up to, and he leans out the window. He says, was y'all the people, the evangelists up there at the church house?

[21:04] And, and, and he said, yeah, we were. He said, man, I'm sorry. I had to work late. I couldn't get there. And he said, and I was coming and I'm so sorry. I just want to bless you.

[21:17] Handed my daddy $500. And again, here's the thing. Daddy could have took the moment to turn around to me and my sister and my mama and rub it in our face.

[21:30] Say what God will do if you'll be faithful. Bless God. If you'll be faithful, he'll do it. That's the reason I hate them people. I shouldn't say hate.

[21:40] Hate's a bad word. I don't like those people. I want you to be real with me. Talk to me. Tell me what's going on. And that man turned around and looked at us and says, but God, can somebody bless the Lord?

[21:55] That's what he would do it. And I'm telling you, that's the way he was. That's faithfulness in a nutshell. That's what it is. When you're in the middle of this thing to find joy, because I'm telling you right now, you want to make the devil mad, be standing in the middle of a difficulty or be standing in front of this mountain that you don't know how it's going to move.

[22:14] And you start praising him and laughing. There was an old minister years ago, man. Anybody know who Jerry Savelle was? Jerry Savelle used to preach a message.

[22:24] They said, if he can't steal your joy, he can't steal your goods. I'm telling you right now, and there's a reason that the Bible tells us that joy comes in the morning.

[22:38] It may be dark now. It may be a difficult time. But I'm telling you, if you'll be faithful to the word, if you'll be faithful to what God has promised. Well, see, Mark, I don't know what the promises are.

[22:51] Man, get in the word and find them. Man, what's fun is when you go in there and you find something that says, good Lord, this is right where I was at. Find something. But I got to be honest with you, and I'm going to tell you this, and I mean it from my heart.

[23:06] The Bible says that he's faithful to all generations. 89.1 in Psalms, Pessalms says, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.

[23:19] And with my mouth will I make known his faithfulness to all generations. All generations. That means your kids have to know the faithfulness of God and just bring them to church.

[23:36] Won't show them faithfulness. But I promise you right now, when you set them down and you say, see, I don't know about y'all, but I never wanted my kids to have to worry about any of that stuff.

[23:48] So I shielded them from a lot of that stuff. My mom and dad never shielded me. Never. I knew, they never told me how bad it was, but I always knew it was bad.

[24:01] I always knew when we were going, we were riding home and we're looking in the mailbox, believing God, that one of them Christians was sending one of them cards and letters. Keep them cards and letters coming, baby.

[24:15] And make sure there's a check written in that dude when it gets here. But I mean, we'd stand there and we'd never, my dad was never a mailbox watcher.

[24:26] And again, I mean, for me, even now with my business, even now with my business, I find myself, what's the mail gonna hold for me today?

[24:41] And then I'm sitting there and I'm going, man, you mighty man of God, filled with the Holy Ghost and power and all the word for 950 million years you've been listening to somebody tell you about the word of God and tell you what you're supposed to do.

[24:59] And you have the audacity to be standing here at a mailbox, hoping somebody sends you a check. That's not faithfulness to God. That's not faithfulness to his goodness.

[25:12] And knowing that he said he'd never fail you. Knowing that he said he would never, ever leave you and have you wondering or even, my goodness, he said the sparrows wonder what they go, they don't even wonder what they're gonna eat.

[25:28] I feed them and if I care about them, why wouldn't I care about you? I care about you more. Don't think about what you're gonna eat and what you're gonna, I mean, all of those things is what Jesus said.

[25:39] Don't think about what you're gonna eat. Don't think about your housing. Don't think about how all that stuff, that's all. Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Being in right standing with God, that's what I'm seeking first and all these other things get added to you.

[25:56] It's just add-ons. All those things that the world worries about, you don't have to. Oh my gosh. That's a lot better than y'all preaching or shouting anyway. How about that?

[26:08] I love that God is faithful. I've come to realize that I would like to be successful in every area of my life.

[26:22] And if I'm forced to choose, I'd rather be faithful. I'd rather be faithful. I didn't used to be that way. I wanted to be successful.

[26:33] That's what I wanted. That's what I was after. I'd like to say that the end of my life that I would, I'd been faithful to my spouse.

[26:44] I'd been a faithful daddy. I'd like for them to be able to say that about me. That I've been faithful to work a job. I've been everything I needed to do.

[26:55] I'm faithful with the relationships with my friends and my life. But ultimately, I just want to make sure I got a relationship with Jesus.

[27:08] And that I've been faithful to the call that's on my life. That I've been faithful to do those things that he's asked me to do. And that whenever I mess up, I apologize to him right then.

[27:20] Holy Ghost, I'm sorry I missed you. I'm ready. Your faithfulness, all of these things, if you're faithful to God, you'll be on time. You'll be reliable. You'll be loving.

[27:33] Isn't it amazing how every one of those fruits of the Spirit, if you operate in one of them, all the rest of them work too? And isn't it amazing that God knew you would be like that and said, you know what, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

[27:48] I'm going to give you my Spirit. So when you ain't walking right and you ain't in goodness and you ain't faithful and you ain't all those things long-suffering, whoo, I don't even know nothing about no long-suffering and I ain't even going to try to lie to you.

[28:09] But I'm telling you when I'm in that in the Spirit of God, isn't it amazing when you mess up, you already get a check, something on the inside, boy, that's wrong. You better call Barry right now and apologize to him right now.

[28:25] And here's the thing, I used to push that away, oh, I don't, I'm not going to do that. I didn't offend him. Now, I just automatically, I'll call you. Man, I missed it.

[28:37] I stepped out of line that I hurt you and instantly, most of the time, people will say, oh, no, brother. I'm fine. No one, they done chopped me up for lunch. Chopped me up on the dinner table with all the family.

[28:51] That, Mark Ward, I tell you, how can he say that stuff and be that way? How can he do it? But again, what's fun is the Holy Ghost always checks me.

[29:03] He always does that spirit of God that raised Christ from the dead and it quickens my mortal body every day because I'm telling you, if you're looking for me to be perfect, man, you're in trouble.

[29:19] Me and you are in trouble because don't follow me. No, I'm kidding. I'm good most of the time. I am, Nancy. Bless your heart.

[29:30] You look to me like, really? Most of the time, I'm really good. It's just them other times that I'm not. God's faithful and I want to be faithful to him.

[29:44] Amen? Can I pray for you right now? Father God, we thank you. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy and we thank you for your spirit that you put in us that allows us, Father God, to be able to walk in the fruit of the spirit knowing that the fruit is what people judge us by.

[30:03] It's the fruit that people see. It's those things that people see, God. And I thank you right now that you have made a way for us to be exactly what you want us to be.

[30:14] Now, God, I ask you to give us the courage to walk in it. Give us the courage to do what you called us to do and give us the courage to be faithful and do it with all of our heart.

[30:26] We'll give you glory. We'll give you honor. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.