Sermon

Reigning Faith p.4 with Ap. Marci Glisson

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. Second, Peter, I just want to read that Simon Peter, a

  2. bondservant, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have

  3. received a faith of the same kind as ours, say the same kind

  4. as ours, they received a faith at the same kind as theirs.

  5. Come on. And it says here, this kind of

  6. ours by the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ,

  7. grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and

  8. Jesus our Lord, seeing that His divine power has granted to us

  9. everything pertaining to life and godliness.

  10. And I'm going to tell you, if you have not heard me break all

  11. of this first part down, you need to go back on to the Eye

  12. Podcast or whatever it is and listen to it.

  13. They don't have it on video, but they do have it on recording.

  14. You need to listen to it because it's going to stir you up.

  15. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything

  16. pertaining to life and to godliness.

  17. So the minute you got born again and you received faith, come on

  18. from him, the same as the apostles, the same as everybody

  19. in that book. Come on, is what saying you have

  20. the same thing? And the minute you got born

  21. again, that seed of faith was deposited on the inside of you.

  22. Glory to God and now that faith in you, His divine, what His

  23. divine power has granted to you by faith, everything that you

  24. need as a believer to live a life in this earth with what

  25. pertaining everything you need pertaining to life and

  26. godliness. Everything, everything you need

  27. in this life to live it out by faith.

  28. God has already placed on the inside of you the seed that you

  29. need. Hallelujah to be able to walk

  30. through life. Haha.

  31. Oh and walk in this divine power.

  32. And what did he say that divine power was?

  33. Dunamis power, Dynamite power, power so that you could actually

  34. live a dynamic spiritual life. Hallelujah, a dynamic spiritual

  35. life. And he's already given it to us.

  36. But not only a dynamic spiritual life, what else?

  37. A godly life to walk in, the godliness that He actually wants

  38. us to walk in. Amen.

  39. The holiness. And we're going to talk about

  40. that tonight a little bit through the true knowledge of

  41. Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence.

  42. For these have been granted to us His precious and magnificent

  43. promises, so that by them you may become partakers of His

  44. divine nature. So not only did He put the seed

  45. of faith in you, He put His nature in you, and it's divine.

  46. You are a carrier of the divine nature of God.

  47. Come on, how in the world can you be weighted down?

  48. How in the world can you not walk in the freedom with this

  49. power in your life, every day, every day glory to God.

  50. So we've been given this divine nature, having escaped the

  51. corruption of this world by its lust, which could be a whole

  52. nother teaching. Now, for this very reason also

  53. applying all diligence in your faith.

  54. And so we talked about this scripture here about applying

  55. all diligence to your faith. You know, it's one thing to know

  56. what faith is, it's another thing to know how faith comes.

  57. But I'm telling you, there are some companions that brings a

  58. supply. That's what it means, a

  59. nourishment to your faith. And without these qualities and

  60. without these ingredients and without these things operating

  61. fully in your life, your faith is going to fail.

  62. You can confess all day long, but if you do not have these

  63. qualities, we said that adding to your faith or bringing a

  64. supply, when you look it up to the in the Greek, it means to

  65. bring nourishment or to minister to your faith.

  66. And so people's faith is failing because they've not allowed

  67. these ingredients to be brought to the fullness in their life

  68. and developed in their life because all of these qualities,

  69. all of these companions of faith, all of these ingredients

  70. of faith have to be growing and increasing in your life.

  71. And we're going to see why in a minute.

  72. So anyway, he says, listen, it's time that we bring a supply to

  73. our faith. We don't need to just confess

  74. it. We don't need to just hear it

  75. because faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of

  76. God. And we don't need to just, you

  77. know, know the hindrance of of faith, that love don't, you

  78. know, faith isn't going to work outside of love.

  79. And that's the one quality that I always hear taught by great

  80. faith teachers, but I have not heard a lot of faith teachers

  81. teaching about these other qualities being added to their

  82. faith because these faith qualities have to do with

  83. character. These faith qualities have to do

  84. with maturity. And so we hear all kinds of

  85. faith teaching about your finances.

  86. We hear all kinds of faith teaching about your healing, but

  87. not a whole lot about your character.

  88. So he's saying, listen, when you look that word up, supply in the

  89. Greek, he's saying we need to bring a supply of character to

  90. our faith, to our faith. And what else does he say?

  91. So he says supply, moral excellence.

  92. And we've already went through that point.

  93. What was moral excellent, Right living, right living.

  94. And we could go on and on and on about that right living.

  95. They say they have faith, but they're shaking up with

  96. somebody. They say they have faith, but

  97. they're gossiping and slandering somebody else.

  98. They say they have faith. Come on.

  99. But they're cheating their job. No integrity skating and and

  100. cheating and doing little sly things.

  101. OK, so moral excellence is right.

  102. Living is righteousness. We've been given that

  103. righteousness, but now we are to live it out morally.

  104. And this is what this is talking about, moral excellence.

  105. And with moral excellence is knowledge.

  106. What was knowledge? Knowledge and wisdom that comes

  107. from him that is being applied to our life, meaning we must be

  108. people that are in the word, renewing our mind and growing in

  109. the word. And there is never a time that

  110. we can back away from that because I'm going to tell you it

  111. will keep us straight. It will keep us straight.

  112. And so then he goes on to say self-control, which we stopped

  113. on last week, which had to do with.

  114. We'll get into it in a minute. Let me just finish reading this

  115. and then I'll remind you of what they are.

  116. Self-control, perseverance, godliness, godliness, brotherly

  117. kindness, brotherly kindness and love.

  118. And then he goes on to say this in context.

  119. For if these qualities are yours, not just yours, but are

  120. what? Increasing, increasing, growing?

  121. Come on. If they are growing, if they are

  122. increasing, they render you neither.

  123. If they are not good, if OK, sorry, qualities are yours and

  124. are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful.

  125. Right in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  126. For he who lacks these qualities, What qualities?

  127. The list of the seven qualities he just spoke about.

  128. He who lacks them is what? Blind and short sighted and

  129. having forgotten his purification from his former

  130. sins. Therefore, brethren, be more

  131. diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you for

  132. as long as you practice these things.

  133. What things, those qualities, those seven things, you practice

  134. them. You live them out every day of

  135. your life and growing and maturing and, and, and putting

  136. them as the forefront of your walk with Christ.

  137. Christ, what does it say? You will never stumble, You'll

  138. never error, you'll never fall, you'll never slip.

  139. You'll never make a mistake. That's what that means.

  140. You'll never stumble. You'll never stumble.

  141. For in this way, the entrance into eternal the eternal Kingdom

  142. of the Lord Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

  143. So these qualities let me read this one scripture out of the

  144. amplified verse 10 of that. Therefore, believers be all the

  145. more diligent to make certain about his calling and his

  146. choosing you did he choose any of you in here.

  147. Be sure this is what the amplified says, that your

  148. behavior reflects and confirms your relationship with God.

  149. So many people walk around, yeah, I have a relationship with

  150. the Lord, Yeah, yeah, I'm born again.

  151. But I don't see that in their behavior and in these list of

  152. qualities, actually. And he's saying that this is

  153. also proof that you actually are a child of God and that you

  154. actually are a believer and that you actually are operating in

  155. faith. Amen.

  156. That's what it says, is it not? What it says.

  157. It confirms your relationship with God, for by doing these

  158. things, actively developing these virtues, you will never

  159. stumble in your spiritual growth and will live a life that leads

  160. others away from sin. Are you allowing as a believer

  161. others to lead you to sin? Are you actually a believer that

  162. has allowed these qualities to be so entrenched within you that

  163. when people see you, it is pulling them away from sin?

  164. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves that call ourselves

  165. believers, and yet we're allowing ourselves to let others

  166. that are sinners lead us into the place that we once were.

  167. When he says a person that's been adding these qualities to

  168. their life, it will lead others away from sin because you're

  169. actually proving your faith. Because we said faith is

  170. tangible. It should be seen in your life.

  171. Amen. It should be seen in your life,

  172. and it will be seen if we're diligent about adding these

  173. qualities to our faith, making sure that these things are

  174. developing in our life. Not just coming to church,

  175. singing a praise song and going out and doing whatever you want

  176. to do, living however you want to live.

  177. Come on saying whatever you want to say.

  178. Hallelujah. He's given us everything we need

  179. and he expects these things to be operating in our life,

  180. operating in our life. So you know, so we started on

  181. this journey talking about these seven ingredients, moral

  182. excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance,

  183. godliness. What was moral excellence?

  184. I want to remind you, aligning your thoughts, your feelings,

  185. and your actions with the righteousness of God.

  186. So it goes beyond you just praying a little prayer that

  187. when you know that Jesus died on the cross and you asked him to

  188. come into your heart, and one day you get to go to heaven and

  189. you're good to go. No, He expects everything about

  190. us, right? What we say, spirit, soul and

  191. body. And when you break that moral

  192. excellence down in the Greek, you can see he breaks it out

  193. into all three areas, spirit, soul, and body.

  194. First Thessalonians 523. He wants us to remain what?

  195. Blameless in all of these areas for the coming of the Lord.

  196. So we are to align when we're walking in moral excellence.

  197. That means we are aligning everything about who we are with

  198. the way He thinks and what is right and what He calls right

  199. and what He calls good. Come on, we do not.

  200. We are not supposed to be calling what is evil good.

  201. Don't care who you are, and I'm going to say it as a Christian,

  202. I do not know how in the world that you can approve of abortion

  203. because he calls it evil. How can you call yourself in

  204. alignment with Scripture as as a believer and in righteousness

  205. when you think it's OK to murder life?

  206. It's not See this. So this is what we're saying in

  207. all of our thinking and all of everything.

  208. We're aligning to what the Scripture says, right?

  209. How as you as a Christian can say that a male is a female if

  210. they want to be? It goes against righteousness.

  211. It goes against scripture. Amen.

  212. And this is what we're talking about.

  213. But I know tons of Christians love is love and have put them

  214. in the pulpits. Now come on.

  215. No, I choose to align my thoughts, my thinking.

  216. I choose to align my actions, my behavior, and the way I operate

  217. in life with Scripture. With Scripture, period.

  218. Choosing His way of doing things instead of ours.

  219. This is what's called practicing righteousness.

  220. We've been made righteous, but we have to practice it.

  221. We have to live it out. And you know what he calls that

  222. fruits of righteousness? Right living.

  223. That's simply what it is, right living.

  224. OK, then we talked about knowledge, moral wisdom,

  225. application of God's word, such as seeing in right living

  226. righteousness, right? So we're going to understand,

  227. we're going to have wisdom and we're going to have the

  228. knowledge of His Word so that we can actually walk this

  229. righteousness out because we know right from wrong, good from

  230. evil, right Hallelujah. So as a believer, you need the

  231. bread of life every day. You need the word every day.

  232. And I'm going to tell you, you're going to need the word

  233. more and more every day as we see the day drawing more and

  234. more near because of the full blown deception that's going to

  235. be rampant in our world at the coming of the Lord.

  236. Many, many he says, will be deceived and fall away from the

  237. faith. But we're talking about reigning

  238. faith so that we don't have to be in that category.

  239. I don't want to be in that category.

  240. And if I don't keep my mind right and in alignment with the

  241. word, come on, it's easy. I don't care how long you been

  242. living it, it's easy to want to pick up a thought and say it

  243. ain't worth it. Even for somebody that's lived

  244. it for 36 years and seen the goodness of the Lord and the

  245. land of the living #3 self-control.

  246. We already. This is where we finish

  247. self-control or one translation. Or we can say temperance, which

  248. means it is the virtue of one who has mastered his own

  249. desires, his own passions, basically your own will, right?

  250. And sensual appetites, your flesh and what your flesh wants

  251. to do and how your flesh wants to respond in a situation or a

  252. circumstance or whatever the case may be, or in any of your

  253. dealings, right? Because you want the best

  254. outcome. That's a sensual appetite.

  255. That is a desire that you want for your situation.

  256. Come on. But you have to learn how to

  257. master it. These passions, these desires,

  258. your own will, these appetites that you may have.

  259. And if we can't reign and have dominion over our own bodies,

  260. how in the world do we think we're going to be able to, you

  261. know, have great faith and walk around?

  262. We could pretend all day long. We can pretend all day long, but

  263. I choose. I'm not going to be a pretender.

  264. I'm actually going to have self-control and temperance.

  265. That means when I want to say something, I'm going to keep my

  266. mouth shut. When I want to retaliate, I'm

  267. not going to right that that means all kinds of things.

  268. OK, when I want to go do whatever I want to do, but yet

  269. there's a calling of God saying, but I need you to do this.

  270. So we have to learn how to master our own self.

  271. And do you know what we said? It doesn't have to be by our own

  272. willpower. This is not willpower because

  273. many people can do it by willpower or religious religious

  274. exercises. No, he doesn't ask us to do it

  275. by willpower. He actually lets us know.

  276. I've given you divine power. I've given you grace.

  277. I've empowered you. Come on.

  278. To be able to be self controlled, to be able to be

  279. temperate, to be able to be disciplined in the things.

  280. I am no longer a slave to the passions and the desires of the

  281. flesh. I am not obligated.

  282. Romans is where we land ended last week.

  283. Romans. I encourage you all to read

  284. Romans chapter. What was that 8 where we ended

  285. and talking about the yeah, Romans chapter 8.

    Romans 8 chapter mention

  286. I encourage you go read it. He lets you know you're no

  287. longer obligated to the appetites of this flesh, to the

  288. desires of this flesh, to those things that this flesh wants.

  289. You're no longer a slave to it when you're born again.

  290. But you know what you're supposed to be a slave to?

  291. Scripture says a slave to righteousness, a slave to

  292. righteousness, right, Living, moral excellence, that's what

  293. we're to be a slave to. So I'm sorry if I actually live

  294. right because I'm a slave to it. I can't do anything else but

  295. live right because I'm a slave to it.

  296. I'm obligated to it. Hallelujah.

  297. So the next point is where we want to start today,

  298. Perseverance. Because I'm telling you, without

  299. perseverance being added to your faith, you will quit on God.

  300. You'll abandoned your faith in the midst of the battle.

  301. You'll back away. You'll shrink back if these

  302. things have not been allowed to fully mature and develop within

  303. you. And This is why we see many fall

  304. away. I'm going to tell you it's not

  305. really because of this great deception.

  306. It's actually because they've not built these qualities to

  307. their faith to keep them grounded in the midst of things

  308. that they are to persevere through while we're walking in

  309. this world. Listen, James said that you're

  310. going to have trials, you're going to have tribulations,

  311. you're going to have all these things in the world world

  312. because it's still falling. But what does he say?

  313. Be of good cheer. But I'm going to tell you, so

  314. many people fall away from God or think that God couldn't or

  315. they didn't have enough faith to when all it was is they did not

  316. continue to allow these qualities to be developed within

  317. them. Because when we'll see, it means

  318. to be fully matured. And so many people bail when

  319. they have, especially the generation that we're living in

  320. today have no perseverance, can't even persevere through the

  321. rain to get to church. No perseverance.

  322. We're finding this in the workplace.

  323. They have to have a mental health day because they can't

  324. even function one day with something going on in their

  325. life. Seriously, right?

  326. And So what these these qualities of perseverance or

  327. another word is called endurance.

  328. Because remember, we're going to read the scripture where it says

  329. those who endure until the end. And if you have not allowed

  330. perseverance and divert and endurance to develop in your

  331. life, then your faith is going to fail because it's not had a

  332. supply of endurance added to it. It's not had a supply of

  333. perseverance added to it. That means when you feel like

  334. quit and you don't quit, you get up, come on, you get up and you

  335. do it again because everything in you wants you to quit.

  336. This is what we're talking about with perseverance.

  337. All hell is breaking loose in your life and instead of

  338. learning how to persevere through it with God and His

  339. divine grace and His empowering, come on, you want to back up and

  340. you don't want to go through the vulnerability.

  341. You don't want to go through the stripping.

  342. You don't want to go through the testing.

  343. You don't want to go through it, so you back up and you don't

  344. endure. And so endurance is not

  345. developed and matured within you.

  346. And I'm going to tell you, this is where a lot of people are

  347. bailing and quitting on God. Oh, I've been serving him for so

  348. long. Well, why are you in the same

  349. condition? Something has not been allowed

  350. to have It's perfect work in you that when everything around you

  351. is telling you to quit, to give up, it's not worth it.

  352. I hate this life. I hate this Christians.

  353. They've been given the Kingdom of God and his inheritance.

  354. And they talk like that, think their life is miserable.

  355. Come on. And it's because they've not

  356. allowed God to develop these things in their walk, because it

  357. takes work. You don't have to work it by

  358. yourself, I'm telling you. And those who are trying to work

  359. it by themselves are miserable. But it's the grace of God heaped

  360. upon grace, grace heaped upon grace, and His grace is

  361. sufficient. What does it mean?

  362. It is more than enough for you to walk in reigning faith.

  363. Come on, for you to walk in overcoming whatever it is going

  364. on in your situation, in your circumstance.

  365. So perseverance means steadfastness.

  366. That means you keep moving forward when everything is

  367. telling you don't take another step.

  368. You're steadfast. No, I'm looking straight ahead.

  369. That's why he says fix your eyes on the prize, keep being

  370. steadfast, keep moving forward. Come on, persevere in the midst

  371. of it. You know what else it means?

  372. Consistency. Are you a person that is

  373. inconsistent in your walk with the Lord for a few months,

  374. you're in the church and then you're you don't, we don't see

  375. you for a few months and then you decide you're inconsistent.

  376. God is not inconsistent. So that means you are not

  377. walking in, you are not walking in His divine nature, because

  378. His divine nature perseveres. His divine nature is steadfast.

  379. His divine nature is consistent in all things.

  380. His divine nature is faithful. Even when you feel like we are

  381. faithless, you stay steady, you stay consistent.

  382. I can tell you people that know me, I, I want that to be a

  383. testimony of my life that through 36 years of her saying

  384. she's lived for the Lord. The one thing I can tell you is

  385. she was consistent, not backing up.

  386. I'm moving forward, persevering. I'm going to go through it.

  387. Come on, I'm going to be steadfast.

  388. I'm going to be consistent. And do you know what that means?

  389. You have to be patient in your endurance.

  390. Patient endurance is what it also means.

  391. You're going to have to be patient in the midst when you

  392. want everything done and over with.

  393. You just want it to be fixed. You just want it to be over.

  394. You just want it to be done. Come on.

  395. But that's where what patience is required, patient endurance.

  396. And these are the ones that are going to have reigning faith in

  397. the day where he says many are going to fall away.

  398. Many are not going to endure till the end because they've not

  399. stayed consistent. They've not learned to

  400. persevere. It is the characteristic, listen

  401. to what it says, to mean to persevere, to be steadfast, to

  402. be consistent, and to have patient endurance.

  403. It is the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his

  404. deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith by even the

  405. greatest trials or sufferings. That is what it means to be a

  406. person of perseverance, that in the midst of your greatest

  407. trials, come on, you are going to be deliberate about the

  408. purpose that God has for you and about your loyalty to faith.

  409. We're going to have to have these qualities developed in our

  410. life if we're going to stay true to God.

  411. We're going to have to have it. Look what Romans 51 and five

  412. says it says. Therefore, since we have been

  413. justified, that is, acquitted of our sin, declared blameless

  414. before God by faith, let us grasp the fact that we have

  415. peace with God and joy of reconciliation with Him.

  416. You know, again, I've been ministering to you, some of you

  417. guys, for years and I've always wanted to just have a sweet

  418. little voice as I minister, but I get so pumped up and full of

  419. the anointing that it comes out like this.

  420. I've tried to restrain myself. I'm serious.

  421. I'm like, can't I just read it nicely?

  422. But I'm consistent. I'm a lover of the Word.

  423. I'm a lover of the Spirit of God.

  424. I'm passionate because I want you to be passionate.

  425. I want you to be a lover of the Word.

  426. I want you to be a lover of righteousness.

  427. Come on. I want you to be able to reign

  428. in faith and I want you to be able to endure till the end and

  429. not be 1. I don't want not one of anchor,

  430. faith, peace, not enduring till the end and backing away and

  431. shrinking back. Hallelujah.

  432. I just want to look pretty when I preach and nice.

  433. The anointing just don't flow like that.

  434. I'm telling you, the anointing is not pretty and nice.

  435. It's, it's fire, all right. Through Him we also have access

  436. by faith into His remarkable state of grace in which we

  437. firmly and safely and securely stand.

  438. Let us rejoice in our hope and the confident assurance of

  439. experiencing and enjoying the glory of our great God, the

  440. manifestation of His excellence and power.

  441. And not only this, but with joy let us exalt in our sufferings

  442. and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship distress,

  443. pressure, the weight, pressure the weight, come on, trouble,

  444. what does it do? It produces patient endurance,

  445. but people that will not persevere with God and will not

  446. go through what he's trying to teach them in the midst of the

  447. trouble, the pressure, the weight, the circumstance, the

  448. trial, they just want to act like it's not there.

  449. They want to go on. They're not real with God.

  450. Come on. They're not opened up and saying

  451. God, what is going on? What can we?

  452. What do I need to come on? Give me the word that I need so

  453. that I'll be able to walk through this and be able to

  454. persevere and endure. And so that I won't abandoned my

  455. faith, that I won't quit, that I won't back down, but that I will

  456. stay focused on the purpose and the calling and the things that

  457. you have for my life, right? The family that you said I could

  458. have come on, the healing that you said I could have persevere

  459. to, knowing that the word says by his stripes you were healed.

  460. Come on. So I'm going to walk in divine

  461. healing. I'm going to walk in divine

  462. health. I'm going to walk in a full

  463. supply of having more than enough for every good work that

  464. he wants me to put my hand to. Come on, whatever it may be, I'm

  465. going to walk through it and persevere so that endurance can

  466. What does it do? Prove character.

  467. Prove your character in the midst of the battle.

  468. Prove who you really are in the midst of the battle.

  469. Prove your character. Prove your integrity to God.

  470. Because anybody can whine and cry and not allow God to do what

  471. he wants to do or whatever the situation, or say, why me,

  472. What's going on? What have I done?

  473. But instead of saying, Lord, search my heart, come on, search

  474. my heart. If there's anything in me that I

  475. need to adjust, that I need to change that I need to grow in

  476. show me so that when I'm walking through this, come on, some

  477. things are being developed within me because I don't want

  478. to go through a trial. I don't want to go through a

  479. battle. I don't want to go through the

  480. pain. I don't want to go through that

  481. for no purpose. But I want him to prove my

  482. character. What does it mean?

  483. Spiritual maturity? We're talking about a reigning

  484. church. We're talking about reigning

  485. faith, and there's some things that God needs to develop within

  486. our life and add to our faith. Come on, if we're going to

  487. actually mature spiritually and have proven character and the

  488. way it gets proven is I persevere and I endure through

  489. it all. And I don't quit on God.

  490. I don't bail on what He said, but I'll stay true and faithful

  491. to Him because He is faithful to me.

  492. Hallelujah, glory to God. So a reigning faith.

  493. This is a good quote and you should write it down and share

  494. it. Reigning faith does not abandon

  495. the hard places. There are hard places that you

  496. are going to walk through. I don't care.

  497. God did not guarantee us that we would not have things that we

  498. had to walk through while we're still in this earth.

  499. But He did promise that He gave us everything we need that

  500. pertains to life and godliness and a full supply of His power

  501. and His grace and His ability to walk through it and overcome it

  502. and not slip, not fail, not stumble.

  503. Come on, not make a mistake. I'm not I'm not saying that

  504. we're perfect and we're never going to make mistakes because

  505. you know why? All of these qualities should be

  506. continuing. Growth should be constant.

  507. And every year I look in the word, which is the mirror of my

  508. life, I realize there's more things.

  509. There's more things to grow in, to develop in, to deal with, but

  510. when you think you've arrived and you are not teachable any

  511. longer, come on, you're at risk. So reigning faith will not

  512. abandon the hard places or the difficult seasons of life or the

  513. challenges that come. A reigning faith is always

  514. faithful, always steadfast, always persevering and moving

  515. forward, always consistent. Amen.

  516. In the midst of the things that we are going through.

  517. So it is meaning this, this perseverance and this

  518. steadfastness, this consistency is the quality of being

  519. resolute. Firm and unwavering, immovable.

  520. I'm not moving off my position. I'm not getting off the seat

  521. that I've been put in, which is seated in heavenly places in

  522. Christ Jesus. I refuse to get up off my seat.

  523. No, I'm going to have authority. I'm going to walk in it.

  524. I'm going to reign in my faith. I'm going to choose to be

  525. resolute. I'm going to choose to be firm.

  526. I'm going to choose to be unwavering.

  527. Amen. That's what being persevering

  528. and consistent means. Hallelujah.

  529. Do you have time for the last one or do we want to go to next

  530. Wednesday? Hallelujah, glory to God.

  531. Let's read what first Peter chapter 5 and verse six through

    1 Peter 5 chapter mention

  532. 10 has to say this. Let's just read this scripture

  533. about endurance. It says, therefore humble

  534. yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

  535. Set aside yourself righteous pride so that He may exalt you

  536. to a place of honor in His service and at the appropriate

  537. time. What does he say?

  538. Cast all your cares. And that what we talked about,

  539. the freedom that you're to walk into.

  540. This is what April said tonight was encouraging.

  541. Cast all your cares, all your anxieties, all your worries and

  542. all your concerns once and for all on him.

  543. For he cares about you with the deepest affection and he watches

  544. over you very carefully. Be sober, well balanced, self

  545. disciplined, Be alert and cautious at all times that your

  546. enemy, the enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a

  547. roaring lion, fiercely hungry, seeking someone to devour.

  548. What does he say? Verse 9?

  549. But resist him. Be firm in your faith against

  550. his attack, rooted and established.

  551. And what immovable, immovable, established, immovable.

  552. You get established when you allow these qualities to be

  553. added to your faith. This is how you'll be a person

  554. that knows how to endure every trial, every situation, every

  555. circumstance and not be moved by any of it.

  556. Not moving off my position, not getting up out of my seat

  557. because I've learned how to just cast those cares on the Lord.

  558. Come on, that's what he's saying.

  559. I've learned how to be and resist him and be firm in my

  560. faith against his attacks because I'm rooted and I am

  561. established and I am immovable knowing that the same

  562. experiences of sufferings are what being experienced by other

  563. brothers and sisters throughout the world.

  564. World, you do not suffer alone. After you have suffered for a

  565. little while, the God of all grace who imparts His blessing

  566. and favor, who called you to His own eternal glory in Christ

  567. Himself will what complete, confirm, strengthen and

  568. establish you, making you what you ought to be.

  569. He wants us established and actually, you know, pastor, let

  570. me know. We just was listening.

  571. You know how every year ministers usually have a word

  572. for the Lord? And Rodney Howers Brown, His

  573. word for this year was that things will be established.

  574. And I'm telling you, if you'll start getting serious about

  575. adding these qualities to your faith, you'll finally walk into

  576. being established in your relationship with the Lord that

  577. nothing's going to get you off of it.

  578. Nothing's going to pull you away.

  579. Nothing, come on, nothing is going to move you off of who you

  580. know you are in Christ Jesus. You will be firmly established

  581. in 2025. I know one of the scriptures

  582. that the Lord gave me at the beginning of the year is he who

  583. started a good work in you will bring it to completion, firmly

  584. establish you. He'll bring it to completion if

  585. you don't bail, if you'll learn how to persevere, if you'll

  586. learn how to endure. Establish.

  587. He wants us established. I'm telling you, He wants us

  588. established in every area of our life.

  589. This is where a full, mature, spiritually mature church

  590. because that's what He's coming back for.

  591. It's when we all attain Ephesians right to the fullness

  592. of God and each and every one of us, he wants us to walk into the

  593. fullness of God. And it's then where the body of

  594. Christ is being built up. It's then where the body of

  595. Christ is actually acting like Jesus mature in the fullness

  596. established, come on, reigning and ruling in all areas of their

  597. life. Remember the mental area.

  598. Come on the moral character, the whole man, all your emotions,

  599. your body, you've got it disciplined.

  600. Listen, God is not an undisciplined God.

  601. So if there's things that you still deal with, with being

  602. undisciplined in your life, you need to tap into this

  603. self-control and this temperance and start meditating on those

  604. scriptures and building that within your character.

  605. Because God is not a God of chaos.

  606. He's not a God of confusion. I'm going to tell you this God

  607. is not a sloppy God. So if your house is sloppy, it's

  608. a result of something that's undisciplined in your life.

  609. Because he is not a sloppy God. He is not an undisciplined God.

  610. He is meticulous. He is very every T, every dot.

  611. Sorry, that is melancholy personality.

  612. Guess what? God is all personality.

  613. I mean, people that don't wash their car, we were somewhere the

  614. other day and there was a car going by.

  615. And I mean that car had black mold on it, all over it.

  616. I said I don't even see how they're breathing inside.

  617. How in the world can you see? Come on, God is not a, a, a

  618. sloppy God. He's not an undisciplined God

  619. because he put everything in its place.

  620. He set the order. And so I'm telling you, he wants

  621. to work on every area of our life.

  622. You have a problem cleaning your house?

  623. Get some qualities built within you.

  624. You have a problem, you know, come on with a sloppy car.

  625. You open your car door and trash is all in it and clothes are all

  626. in it. My husband says I'm just saying

  627. God is not a dirty God. If you need help learning how to

  628. do something, I will be the first one to help you.

  629. I know how to organize. I know how to clean.

  630. I know how to make a place for everything.

  631. And if you put it back in its place, you won't have the chaos.

  632. Because that's what God did for us.

  633. He put us back in our place because we were out of control.

  634. Come on. Didn't he, Scott?

  635. He did it. Yes, He did it.

  636. Come on, He did it in every area of our life because the outside

  637. is a result of what's going on in the inside.

  638. It is a law. It's a spiritual law.

  639. It's a spiritual law. So he wants us.

  640. Listen, if you're still out of control with your emotions and

  641. you've been born again for 30 years, but you still let your

  642. emotions control your life, you've not put some qualities

  643. within you because God is not out of control emotionally.

  644. See what I'm saying? I mean, every area of our life,

  645. He wants us to live the good life, the best life, Amen.

  646. And that comes with us putting these attributes, these

  647. characteristics and these ingredients, adding them to our

  648. faith so that we can see these things get into place.

  649. Amen. Last scripture and we'll close

  650. James chapter 1-2 and four, it says, consider it nothing but

    James 1 chapter mention

  651. joy. My brother and sisters, whenever

  652. you fall into various trials, be assured that the testing of your

  653. faith through experience. Every single believer is going

  654. to experience the testing of their faith.

  655. That means what does that mean? What you see in God's word that

  656. He says that you can obtain by faith, and when you begin to

  657. believe it, guess what's going to happen?

  658. The enemy's going to test whether or not you really

  659. believe it or not that God can do it, buddy.

  660. Did he do it? Can he do it?

  661. Yes, he can. If we'll have faith and if we'll

  662. allow our faith come on to have these qualities built within it.

  663. So it says, be assured that the testing of your faith through

  664. the experience produces endurance leading to spiritual

  665. maturity and inner peace. So and let endurance have its

  666. perfect result and do a thorough work.

  667. So many people are right here and This is why they're in the

  668. same situation every year because they have not let him do

  669. a thorough work and been able to learn how to persevere through

  670. it and actually overcome it because and develop spiritual

  671. maturity. Your spiritual maturity is not

  672. full grown or developed if you do not actually let Him have

  673. have his thorough work within you during the hardest times of

  674. your life.