Sermon

Don’t give in, Don’t give up

Cross Power Church Sermons

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  1. Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

  2. You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

  3. We pray. And.

  4. Point you to the cross. Now let's join the service.

  5. I was praying the other day and looking up at the store tonight.

  6. We all have the thought of understanding.

  7. You know, the enemy steals a lot of souls because of the word

  8. understanding. I just don't understand the

  9. Bible. I've tried to read it, but I

  10. don't understand it. I've heard it over and over and

  11. over. And it's not that hard to

  12. understand. But when the author of Confusion

  13. gets in your mind, it can become very hard to understand.

  14. But the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said you don't have to

  15. understand. You don't have to understand the

  16. trial you're going through this morning.

  17. You don't have to understand the hurt that's in you.

  18. You don't have to understand. You just got to know that you

  19. serve a God that at any moment is able to deliver.

  20. You don't get caught up on the understanding.

  21. I wanted to preach that, but I'm going to preach this in

  22. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 6. It said let him who has taught

    Galatians 6 chapter mention

  23. the Word sharing all good things with him who teaches verse 7

  24. says do not be deceived who comes to deceive the enemy and

  25. confuse and destroy, But he says do not be deceived.

  26. If there's anything that's running rampant, not just in the

  27. world, but I would say more so in the church, in the body of

  28. Christ, people are being deceived because we're mocking

  29. God. And and he says right here that

  30. God is not mocked. We have people running around

  31. that think whatsoever they sow, they will not reap.

  32. But he says here that whatever man souls that he will also reap

  33. for he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap

  34. corruption. But I love this next verse.

  35. But he who sows of the Spirit, will of the Spirit reap.

  36. Everlasting life isn't that good.

  37. And let us this is what I want to preach to you today.

  38. Let us say us not grow weary while doing good.

  39. For in due season, when it's God's time, we shall reap if we

  40. do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have

  41. opportunity, let us do good to all, but especially to those who

  42. are the household of faith. Father, we come before you today

  43. and I just pray for those that are growing weary myself

  44. sometimes and doing good when we listen to the misdirection of

  45. the enemy. And Father, I pray today that

  46. you would just get in our hearts and our minds and in our flesh

  47. and all over us, that we cannot grow weary while doing good

  48. because if we do not give up, if we don't give in, if we don't

  49. give up, we will reap a harvest. We thank you for your love.

  50. We thank you for the anointing to preach the gospel again in

  51. Jesus name, Amen. I want to share with you 3

  52. points today. The first one he says don't grow

  53. weary, do not give in. I'm going to camp out on this

  54. one for a little while because today there's too many people

  55. that give in. And Matthew chapter 6 and 13, it

    Matthew 6 chapter mention

  56. was part of Jesus prayer when he was teaching how to pray, he

  57. said lead us not into temptation, but deliver us what

  58. from evil didn't lead us not into temptation.

  59. But yet Jesus knew what it was like to be LED into temptation.

  60. So there was nothing. There's nothing wrong with

  61. temptation. The wrong comes is when we yield

  62. to it, when we what? Give in The first point I want

  63. to share with you, Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 26 and

  64. 41. He says to watch and pray so

  65. that you will not fall into temptation.

  66. Temptation is not a sin in itself, but when we yield to

  67. that temptation and we give in, it becomes sin.

  68. And as I begin to think about this, I thought, you know, 1

  69. nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for

  70. all, and proclaiming God as our Lord, as a sovereign nation.

  71. It has brought us thus far. I believe there's only one

  72. reason that we haven't received the famines and all the things a

  73. lot of countries have is because we have declared that we are one

  74. nation. But I recall under another

  75. administration, I heard the president say that we are no

  76. longer one nation under God, but many gods.

  77. Hello, I heard a rodeo announcer on TV and I know he's a believer

  78. and I love him. I know him personally and he

  79. prays a great prayer and leads people to Christ.

  80. But it kind of struck in my spirit the other day said let's

  81. let's take our hats off and let's go to the God of our

  82. choice. See that that speech can't enter

  83. into me. Hey, man, it's not a God of

  84. choice because if you, it's not another God at all.

  85. There's one true God. But yet we give in.

  86. We give in. How did one nation under God

  87. fall as low, but yet we think we're high?

  88. The Bible says take heed lest you fall, but we're messed up.

  89. I was watching the news yesterday and I want to tell you

  90. how messed up we are. And I know we have podcast.

  91. I'm reminded very often of that, but I'm not changing.

  92. I'm not giving in. Amen.

  93. Podcast is a great thing. But if you elevate the podcast

  94. and I start worrying about what I'm saying, if it's the truth,

  95. hello. If it's the truth and I begin to

  96. waver from what I really want to say that the Holy Spirit has put

  97. down in my soul that I prayed and fasted and saw God about

  98. that week. And I said, oh, because somebody

  99. else is going to hear this that may not agree, Amen.

  100. What am I doing? I'm giving in.

  101. My ancestors, they did not care what you thought about how they

  102. taught you and told you how you should live because it was in

  103. the Bible. And if you didn't like it,

  104. you're the one had to deal with it.

  105. But Christians aren't that way today.

  106. I don't know where we ever got this, that we can keep them

  107. unoffended and we can pat them on the back and we can tell them

  108. how good they are and not give in.

  109. I want to give to you some statistics today.

  110. How did we fall as low that I can turn Fox News on, and I know

  111. it's on the podcast. I know there may be some

  112. transgenders that I don't care, but they were showing a a Miss

  113. Universe pageant and letting a man compete in it and he was a

  114. pretty man, but he's still a man.

  115. He looked like a woman. Hello.

  116. I made some of y'all on the late night after a few drinks.

  117. You would have probably went out with him, but I got news for it.

  118. The truth is, he's still a man. I got news for the transgenders.

  119. You will never be a woman. God placed the love and the

  120. motherhood of a woman down deep in the soul of a woman.

  121. And it doesn't matter how long long your hair gets, or what you

  122. add to your body or what you take away from your body, you

  123. will never be a woman. Amen.

  124. In God's eyes, it will never change and I'm not giving it.

  125. And I shouldn't have to explain to a four year old why a man can

  126. compete in women's sports, why a man can, can, can get into Miss

  127. Universe beauty pageant and may let him win it because it's

  128. going to offend them if he don't.

  129. I don't care. Amen.

  130. I love them, I pray for them, but I'm not giving in.

  131. Hello, I'm not giving in. I refuse to give in.

  132. Well, Pastor, that's cost you. Oh, it's cost me some friends.

  133. Hello. The story I give about Charlie

  134. Sampson with a fake ear. And everywhere he walked up,

  135. young people's looking at his ear that a bull stepped on a

  136. ripped off because they'd heard about it.

  137. Amen. Anybody ever felt like that as a

  138. Christian, you go into a place, you're the only one not giving

  139. in and you're the only one not participating in all the things

  140. they're doing. And everybody's looking at you

  141. like you. I don't care overcome that a

  142. long time ago because I know that the price that Jesus paid

  143. at the cross of Calvary is way more than what I feel and way

  144. more than the offenses that I take to the I'm not giving it.

  145. Yes, it's cost me friends I got I thought they were friends, but

  146. you know what a few of them are coming back.

  147. I get called sometime. Hey, you might have been right.

  148. I said I wasn't right. I told you what the Bible said

  149. and it's an unfallable word of God and it goes forth and it

  150. will accomplish what it was set forth to do.

  151. It's not about being right, it's about the truth.

  152. The truth is always right. Y'all going to preach with me

  153. this morning? You can always tell when you

  154. ain't preaching to somebody in the house.

  155. They're like, man you boy, I'll get on something in a minute.

  156. Just give me a second. It's going to cost you some

  157. family members. Didn't Jesus tell us that he

  158. said I didn't come to bring peace on this earth.

  159. I came to to turn a mother against a daughter, a father

  160. against a son, a brother against a sister and, and and what he

  161. was saying he wasn't doing. But he's the way the truth and

  162. the life and it will happen. But I've come by to tell you

  163. today, don't give in because someone's eternal destiny may

  164. depend on it. When we look at the church, the

  165. body of Christ, when we refer to the church, you know, we're not

  166. talking about this building. We're not talking about the

  167. eight or seven that's in Campbell that I could throw a

  168. rock and hit around here that all believe different little old

  169. glitch in the end glitches in their believing and can't come

  170. together and build 1 big church because we want to believe what

  171. makes us feel good. But the mainstream Protestant

  172. denominations. What does that mean for you?

  173. The ones that believe in Jesus and believe that he died on the

  174. cross for the forgiveness of our sins and went to the tomb and

  175. rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven and sets at

  176. the right hand of the Father. Yes, churches that believe that

  177. have also give in. They ordained openly LGBTQ plus

  178. and now they got numbers on the end.

  179. Every time they come up with another somebody that's that

  180. wants to that develop their own lifestyle.

  181. The enemy said Bible says in the last days we will invent ways to

  182. sin because the old ways of sinning wasn't fulfilling

  183. enough. Amen.

  184. But we're inventing ways. Yes, they have ordained clergy

  185. preachers and they say we're going to ordain them to serve.

  186. My questions serve what? Serve what?

  187. You're not serving God. You're not believing in the

  188. cross that you profess to believe in because it's listed

  189. in the sins that God hates his homosexuality much less trend.

  190. You know, I don't I don't even know.

  191. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder, as as

  192. omnipresent and as omnipotent, if God is, could he really

  193. phantom what his creation would do?

  194. They wasn't doing near as much crazy stuff as we are today.

  195. I don't believe in Sodom and Gomorrah.

  196. I really don't believe they could have been.

  197. But I'm going to name them the United Church of Christ.

  198. Yes, they are ordaining. Gay, lesbian transgenders, I

  199. suppose. I know it's gay and lesbian.

  200. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, yes, is ordaining

  201. homosexuals. The Episcopal Church, yes, is

  202. ordaining. I want you to hear this this

  203. morning. The Presbyterian.

  204. You know why I want you to hear it?

  205. Because I know some folk going to this church that don't even

  206. know the church is doing it. The Presbyterian Church.

  207. Are you ready for this one? the United Methodist Church?

  208. What would John and Charles Wesley do?

  209. What would they think about it that founded that church?

  210. The Christian Church call themselves disciples of Christ,

  211. legalizing mind altering drugs. What happened?

  212. I ask you what happened? What happened?

  213. Somebody give in. I challenge you today, never

  214. give in. Yes, clout.

  215. That's OK. I know for many churches, hard

  216. the kids don't want to go. I hear parents say if my kids

  217. don't want to go, duh, my spouse don't want to go.

  218. So what? Well, I can't take my dog.

  219. You can bring him in here. If he does something, you're

  220. going to clean it up. I'm not I've heard it all call

  221. someone with us have been missing at church just checking

  222. on you while I do laundry on Sunday only to found out they

  223. didn't have a job. They had six days to do laundry.

  224. What happened? We give in to a stupid enemy

  225. that knows if he can cut your lifeline and you can't get fed

  226. you're going to fall. But see you're a child of the

  227. most high God. Hold the banner high.

  228. Don't give in to the little worthless lies that are of the

  229. enemy. I love you, I pray for you, but

  230. I'm not giving in. I'm not accepting the lives of

  231. the enemy. I'm not OK in things that are

  232. blatantly in the Bible that says do not, don't give in.

  233. Engage the enemy. Far too long believers have been

  234. giving in in the church, and there's a way to do it in love.

  235. I get it, but we can't give in. I'm preaching to the church

  236. today. I'm not preaching to somebody

  237. that needs love. I'm pretty to somebody that

  238. knows, should know how to give love.

  239. Do it in a lovingly way, but don't give in.

  240. Don't give in to the world just accepting the things.

  241. I've got news for the devil. I'm not giving in and I want to

  242. give you a heavy Revi. There's not a church that you

  243. can attend that will help you if you don't accept the truth.

  244. I didn't say it wouldn't make you feel good, but how many know

  245. The feeling might be up here today, but it's leaving

  246. tomorrow. Serving God is not about a

  247. feeling. Somebody to pull their ear and

  248. say sorry. God's not about how I feel.

  249. I'll never forget when I got that.

  250. It's about the good news. There's not a church that can

  251. help you if it's not preaching the truth.

  252. What do we stand before a judge and say the whole truth?

  253. Nothing but the truth. So help me God, why can't we do

  254. that in our spiritual life? Why can't we do it?

  255. Because the truth is not being preached in a lot of places, and

  256. the truth is all that will set you free.

  257. How many want to see results in your spiritual life?

  258. A lot of people don't. They just want fire insurance,

  259. will know that they pray to sinner's prayer, and somehow

  260. they're going to escape the tribulation and they're going to

  261. wake up in eternity in a heaven with streets of gold and plenty

  262. to eat and all needs met. That's kind of the mentality of

  263. a lot of people. That's true.

  264. But he says you shall know the truth.

  265. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall do

  266. what it shall make you free. So what if what if you walked in

  267. one day? And a lot of Christians, this is

  268. just such a good, good what parable or whatever you call it.

  269. But you join a gym and you hire a trainer.

  270. I see none of you done that, but somehow but you decide to hire a

  271. trainer and you walk into this gym and he's my wife's got these

  272. little weights. She gets in there little in her

  273. in her swimming pool thing and they're just rubber.

  274. I mean, they're the foam. There's no way to us.

  275. What are you going to do with these things?

  276. She's a dummy. She calls me that something.

  277. You got to stick them on the water.

  278. When you stick them on the wall, they become a little heavy.

  279. I get it. But suppose you walk in the gym

  280. and the guy hand you this thing said and he's big and Buffy

  281. says, oh, you want to look like this Here, pick up them little

  282. foam dumbbells. I want you to give me 500 reps

  283. every day. Boy, you're doing this.

  284. You're doing that. You're doing.

  285. What do you think would happen when you go look in the mirror

  286. and go to flexing? What would happen?

  287. You'll help me. What would happen?

  288. What would you? What would happen?

  289. But yet because he told you to do it, your mind would think

  290. that you're going to see a result.

  291. But yet you walk up there every day.

  292. Well, I've been to church 1000 times.

  293. I see no results. I ain't done nothing.

  294. I mean, that's because you're lifting the fault, but you would

  295. expect it because somebody told you that it would happen, right?

  296. And then on the flip side of that, this big old buff guy

  297. comes in there and he's been pumping out his arms are big and

  298. he gives you some 100 LB dumbbells to give me 4050 curls

  299. a day. And you begin to do it and you

  300. know what? This arms going to get really

  301. big. I promise, I promise.

  302. You know, the older you got your rodeo crew, you don't worry

  303. about anything that your right arm because you knew you could

  304. hang on. So you just work your right on.

  305. Forget the rest of it. I just want to work my right

  306. arm, make sure I move my feet fast, forget about everything

  307. else and pretty soon catch up to you.

  308. But you lift this big old weight.

  309. Come on, I'm going somewhere with this.

  310. You lift this big old weight every day and you're tearing.

  311. What? What happens when you lift

  312. weight? You're really not pumping it up

  313. that you're tearing it down. You're set.

  314. You're tearing it down and it's heavy and you're tearing it

  315. down, right? But you could leave that place.

  316. And if all you ever do is it, and you go home and you stop by

  317. the store on the way home and you go chicken fry, you eat some

  318. French fries, some of them onion rings with a beer batter, They

  319. call it on them. And you just eat that.

  320. But I'm going back to gym tomorrow.

  321. You getting it? Might even do some legs.

  322. But you know what? There's a part of you that is

  323. not going to. Change.

  324. Men, women. It ain't going to change.

  325. You can work it. You can.

  326. You know. I'll go.

  327. I'll go with my wife sometime before I get in trouble.

  328. I didn't say nothing. I was feeling for my hankie.

  329. It's up here. I thought it was back there.

  330. There it is. It ain't going to change.

  331. Why? Because you feeding it the same

  332. junk. Come on, somebody that you was

  333. feeding it. But I'm going to go over here

  334. and I'm going to do this and I'm never going to change.

  335. I'm going to keep feeding it the wrong thing.

  336. The Spirit is no different. You can come to church, you can

  337. clap, you can praise. And if it's not coming from here

  338. and if you're not feeding it the word of God, you know, there's a

  339. lot of people, boy, they can, they can praise and they can

  340. clap. But when it comes to reading

  341. that Bible, no, I can't understand it.

  342. Boy. You can jump and praise, but you

  343. can't read your Bible then expect the big biceps and expect

  344. the big old sins to keep following you and the angry

  345. attitude and no peace and no joy and no love because you have not

  346. put anything in it to nourish the Spirit, Amen.

  347. So if you can lift all you want, you can praise all you want, but

  348. if you don't put the word of God in it.

  349. But see, there's a lot of people telling church folk that just

  350. come, just do this, you ain't got to do it.

  351. And they got the big old biceps, so they got the big high in the

  352. Amen, they got the big belly. They ain't nothing changed in

  353. their life. And then and then you follow him

  354. around. You hear him say, well, I know

  355. God can, but because they got their big butt in the way, you

  356. got to get your butt out of the way and say that I'm referring

  357. to a spiritual, but you got to get your butt out of the way.

  358. I know God, but you know, I know God did it for them.

  359. But we're good at putting the butt in the way.

  360. There's no but when the word of God.

  361. Hey man, my God will supply all of my needs according.

  362. Let's get back in the word John chapter 8, chapter 32 before I

    John 8 chapter mention

  363. get in some more trouble. I'm glad I found that hanky John

    John 8 chapter mention

  364. chapter 8 and verse 32. Jesus said if you abide in my

  365. word and you're my disciples indeed.

  366. And in verse 32, he says, you shall know the truth and the

  367. truth shall make you free. They answered him, I like this

  368. right here. They was holding on to some old

  369. doctrine just like church folk. They answered him, said we're

  370. Abraham's descendants and we have never been in bondage to

  371. anyone. How can you say that you will be

  372. made free? They didn't know what freedom

  373. was. They were keeping the law and

  374. Jesus answered them. He said most assuredly.

  375. I say to you, whoever commits sin as a slave of sin, anybody

  376. ever been there? Whoa, you didn't want that

  377. drink, but the enemy made you take it.

  378. He didn't want that drug, but the enemy convinced your mind

  379. you had to have it. You know he can't go.

  380. He just, we become a slave to it.

  381. But most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits a sin is a

  382. slave, and a slave does not abide in a house forever, but a

  383. son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you

  384. free, boy, I like that. How many remember the day the

  385. son made you free? Hey man, it wasn't 12 steps, it

  386. wasn't what somebody said, but the Son made you free, and you

  387. shall be free indeed. Jesus told him that look.

  388. And then he said, I know that you're Abraham's seed.

  389. I know everything. Do you think I don't know who

  390. where you come from? I created you, I know you're

  391. Abraham's descendants, but yet you seek to kill me.

  392. You believe in God, which I'm God in the flesh, but yet you're

  393. trying to kill me. And he says it has no place in

  394. you. But I speak what I have seen

  395. with my father, and you do what you have seen with your father.

  396. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father.

  397. And Jesus said to them, I love this right here.

  398. He brings it home. I'm a Christian.

  399. You could put that right there. If you were Abraham's seed, you

  400. would do the works of Abraham. What did Abraham do?

  401. He set the blood covenant up right by offered up his only son

  402. on the mountain. But now you seek to kill me, a

  403. man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.

  404. Abraham did not do this, but you do the deeds of your father.

  405. Let's read the rest of this. Then they said to him, we were

  406. not born of fornication. We have one Father God.

  407. Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me.

  408. We have people saying they love God but don't believe in Jesus.

  409. We have denominations that are doing that trying to separate

  410. the Trinity for I proceed forth and I came from God, nor have I

  411. come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my

  412. speech? Because you're not able to

  413. listen to my word. You are not of your fault.

  414. You, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your

  415. father. You want to do a lot of problem

  416. right there, right? He was a murderer from the

  417. beginning and does not stand in truth.

  418. Because I like this. There is no truth in him.

  419. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he

  420. is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the

  421. truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin?

  422. And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

  423. He who is of God hears God's words.

  424. Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.

  425. So you got to be of God to receive the truth, and to know

  426. and let the truth set you free. But I challenge you, don't give

  427. in #2 you ready for this? Don't give out.

  428. Many give in because they give out.

  429. Isaiah 40 and 29 and 31, it says trust in the Lord.

  430. Those that trust in the Lord. One translation says wait upon

  431. the Lord and you'll renew your what?

  432. Strength? Those who wait upon the Lord

  433. shall renew their strength, and they shall mount up with wings

  434. like eagles. Why is it important to mount up

  435. with wings like eagles? Because you fly above your

  436. problems. I'm not denying I'm in the

  437. problem, but have the attitude. I really can't believe it's with

  438. this far because I know at any minute my God's about to speak

  439. to my problem and he's about to fix my problem because he's

  440. working all things out to my good.

  441. Because I'm called according to his purpose.

  442. Wait upon the Lord, renew your strength and mount up with

  443. eagle's wings. It says they shall run and not

  444. be weary. We're supposed to run this

  445. Christian race, but we're never to give in.

  446. We're never to give out. They shall walk and not faint,

  447. but wait up on the Lord, hear from the Lord.

  448. Well, God doesn't speak to me. It's true, the Holy Spirit does.

  449. I say that God don't speak to me.

  450. It's true, the Holy Spirit does. God's in heaven, The Holy

  451. Spirit's run on this earth, right?

  452. But they're three in one. Tell me when you figure that

  453. out, do not grow weary and doing good. 2nd Corinthians 4 and 16

  454. Let's read this. Second Corinthians 4 and 16.

  455. It says, therefore we do not lose heart, don't give in, don't

  456. give out. Even though outwardly we're

  457. perishing, yet the inward man is what being renewed day by day.

  458. Oh buddy, I used to drill with, We were so busy all the time we

  459. were doing that, you know, not a minute to breathe sometime.

  460. And he called me every day. He said, what are you doing

  461. today? I said some church stuff and he

  462. says it's Friday, ain't doing no church stuff.

  463. I said, man, every day. I'm about to father's business.

  464. Well, what are you doing? I said I'm going to see an older

  465. man his wife died and I'm praying with him.

  466. See outwardly we're perishing, yet inwardly we're being renewed

  467. What day by day You got to figure this out Your your light

  468. and momentary afflictions is working for us a more

  469. exceedingly and eternal weight of glory.

  470. You like that while we do not look at the things Christians

  471. can't do this walk around this week something to quit looking

  472. at things what you're seeing. Hey man, quit looking at my ball

  473. head and imagine me with hair. We do not look at the things

  474. which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for

  475. the things which are seen or what temporary, But the things

  476. which are not seen are eternal. There was a guy going to church

  477. here one time. He had been eating the right

  478. things. He had lost some weight and he

  479. had got really buff. And that's why I give Scott such

  480. a hard time all the time. So you say he says anything to

  481. people used to. And he walked in and he's like,

  482. man, I've been working out. Look, hey, so I've lost 30 lbs

  483. and buffed up Scots to turn around and he turned around.

  484. So I'm pretty sure I found it. I think he that might be why he

  485. left. I didn't do what you did.

  486. I got the blame. What am I talking about?

  487. Seeing the invisible. It'll work in your marriage.

  488. She walks in. Oh, I got a #5 now.

  489. Good. You've lost a lot of weight,

  490. honey. Just look and see the things

  491. what you can't see sometimes, right?

  492. That's what they do with us seeing the invisible.

  493. We have to learn this, See, as a child of God, it says weeping

  494. may do what? Endure for a night, but joy

  495. comes in the morning. Don't give in, don't give out.

  496. I ask you, have you ever give in?

  497. Have you ever give out on something?

  498. Someone walked up and boom, anybody have been turning on a

  499. boat, cranking on a boat for days And boy, you, you don't

  500. have that sucker loose and somebody comes up and just gives

  501. it a little quirky turn and you're like, man, why didn't I

  502. just do it one more time? Your pride buffs up it.

  503. It wasn't that they were strong. It's just that they didn't give

  504. in. They didn't give out.

  505. You did one more turn be cranking on that old jar and

  506. then hand it to somebody not near strong.

  507. You think, man, why didn't I just one more time?

  508. But far too many times in our faith, we give in, we give out.

  509. Which leads me to the third thing that we do that I see more

  510. and more as we give up. When you give in, that's the

  511. first step. And when you give out, you're

  512. fixing to give up. You're fixing to give up.

  513. Many talk about revival and how we're entering into that phase

  514. of the church, Church age maybe. But when I look at statistics,

  515. you can Google them, I don't see revival.

  516. I don't see the great things that the prophet Joel talked

  517. about. Not yet.

  518. Because it also says before that happens, there's a great falling

  519. away. 1 eschatology preacher will tell you that that means

  520. the rapture. We have fell away.

  521. We have went on to be with the Lord, but it doesn't say falling

  522. away. It says catching away.

  523. It says first there will be a great falling away.

  524. And I believe we're in that now because the enemy has disguised

  525. our nation is that we're doing really good.

  526. We have a great leadership. And I'm not saying we don't.

  527. But the Bible also says that there's a great falling away

  528. that's coming. There's approximately 70 to 88%,

  529. statistics say, of young people raised in an evangelical church

  530. that believes in the cross, that believes in baptism, the

  531. evangelicals that are leaving church after high school, 70 to

  532. 88%. This was the one I looked up was

  533. 2015, eleven years ago, leaving studies.

  534. They, they, they're calling the nun the the NONES nuns, not like

  535. a Catholic nun, but the nuns, they don't attend the church.

  536. They don't even claim a denomination.

  537. But in 23 and 24, it makes up 29% of our society.

  538. In 2015, when I looked some of these studies up, it said for

  539. every person that's coming into the church, every person that's

  540. accepting Christ for we're leaving the faith.

  541. Now it says that 59 to 64%, nearly 2/3 from the ages 18 to

  542. 29 who grew up in church have give up.

  543. And I've done some other research about how many are

  544. converting from Christianity to something else.

  545. Well, what is it? It doesn't matter.

  546. It doesn't matter what it is. And I blame a lot of that on the

  547. church because when you give in, young people can't find the

  548. truth in something that they can hold to.

  549. Because they look at us and they say they really don't know what

  550. they believe. On Sunday they believe this and

  551. Friday night they do this right because we give in.

  552. We give in or they know somebody that used to serve God, but they

  553. give in, they give out and ultimately they will give up.

  554. That's astounding. I've come by to tell you never

  555. give up. I have left my house many times.

  556. In 31 years I have known a man. He was very instrumental in my

  557. first ministry of bucking bulls and horses.

  558. He supplied the bulls and was not a believer.

  559. We were unequally yoked for many years and our relationship was

  560. somewhat frayed at times because of I didn't give in.

  561. But for 31 years, that's a long time older than some of you are

  562. in here. I've called his name in prayer.

  563. I've mentioned the Bible. I've mentioned the cross.

  564. I mean, only to be just shut off and told another wild story.

  565. Money was never issued in his life.

  566. No dependence. But his wife passed away a few

  567. weeks ago and I I kind of let all that pipe wasn't the time

  568. for me to go the enemy come and say, oh, you didn't go see him

  569. in the two weeks. So there's a time frame it don't

  570. do no good. Now the enemy goes to flood.

  571. But all that time I was praying. I said, God, get that ground

  572. ready. Get that ground ready.

  573. By the way, my friend that don't think you about the father's

  574. business on Friday. This happened on Friday and

  575. another guy that is a real prayer warrior and a believer

  576. that knew him too. I told him I was going to be

  577. praying. I said I need it.

  578. I went in that house and set for hours and waited for it to come

  579. up, waited for the opportunity somebody else would come in.

  580. And I said I'm not leaving today.

  581. Lord, 31 years before I left, I said I want to pray with you.

  582. I look in the corner of my eye and I see no Bible over there.

  583. Never seen it before. I see you've been reading that

  584. Bible, he said, but I don't understand it.

  585. I said you ain't got to understand it.

  586. Well, the subject started changing.

  587. I said we're not changing today we're praying.

  588. I stood, I said I want to pray for you.

  589. Lord given him chance. After 10 took he can't walk

  590. anymore. He can get around but he had

  591. paralyzation in the leg and thinking he was going to pass

  592. first. His wife passed and it's just a

  593. God thing. And I said I but I want to pray

  594. with you. But I, you know, I'm always

  595. said, I want you to want me to pray.

  596. I don't want to just pray this prayer.

  597. And I begin to pray about you don't understand what I've done.

  598. See the enemy's telling somebody here that you don't understand

  599. what I've done. I said, no, I don't.

  600. But I understand that there's a man that was on a cross and I

  601. said he bled and died for you. And the Holy Spirit just flooded

  602. the place and I said he hung between two thieves.

  603. I said, you know what they had done all their life?

  604. They stole. They was being crucified for the

  605. crimes that they had committed. They were being crucified for

  606. that. And I said, you know what they

  607. had done to be good? What you're telling me you don't

  608. understand what I've done? And I knew a lot.

  609. I said, I don't have to. I said God don't want to

  610. understand it. Jesus don't even he don't even

  611. care. But I said he was between two

  612. thieves. I said, you know what?

  613. They had done absolutely nothing.

  614. He just looked over at him and he said, Remember Me when you

  615. get to your Kingdom today. And Jesus, what did he do?

  616. He said today you will be with me in paradise.

  617. I said you want to go to heaven. I said you want to see me again

  618. after this life? You want to see your wife again

  619. after this life. You want to go to heaven and I

  620. begin to pray the prayer with him.

  621. And I, I said you want to you want to take you want to meet

  622. the man that that you may be hurt, but he can give you peace

  623. in this hurt. Do you want to meet him today?

  624. Are you tired of giving in? Are you tired of giving out?

  625. You know, I titled this don't give in, don't give out, but

  626. that last word I said never give up because there's times you're

  627. going to give in. I said don't do it, but there's

  628. times you're going to do it. There's times that I would say

  629. don't give out, but you're going to give out.

  630. Tell me on 31 years there was times I wash my hands after

  631. talking and not getting in. 31 years planting seed after seed.

  632. Don't give up. Don't give up.

  633. Well, did you fat every day and pray for this individual?

  634. You ain't got to do all that. Just remember, every now and

  635. then, just remember, pray the prayer of faith.

  636. I said God, God's going to get him.

  637. But you know, I'll always believe if there would have been

  638. times and I had plenty chances to give in, I had plenty chances

  639. to give up. But I never give in.

  640. Though there were times in 31 years we didn't talk.

  641. God will bring us back together. There's people like that in your

  642. life, you know, you just, I'm done with them.

  643. I ain't cat. I love that verse about casting

  644. your pearls before swine, man, I use that a lot.

  645. But God always takes me back there.

  646. Not sure what that man casting no pearls before God.

  647. I don't give them everything. But you know where we mess up?

  648. We say I don't give and I ain't getting.

  649. God don't work like that. You give out of the abundance as

  650. you stand your feet of your heart.

  651. You give. You give, you give.

  652. Thanks for listening to the Cross Power Church podcast.

  653. May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be

  654. found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we

  655. would love for you to join us in person.

  656. You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.