Waver Not - Kingdom Faith

Today I want to talk to you about waiver not.

And I say that because if we look at the book of Luke chapter

Luke 18 · chapter mention

18, starting in verse 8, now obviously there's some

conversation that's being asked of the Lord about the end times.

But more importantly, he's actually using an example of

this particular woman who had this issue getting a legal

protection. And so she went to a judge that

was very unrighteous, and it says that he didn't fear God or

man and he would just keep putting her off.

But she just kept coming because she knew her rights in that

nation and what protection she had.

What was do her. And so because she stayed

persistent, eventually this unrighteous judge, the Lord

calls him, says I'm going to give the lady what she wants.

Again, not because God told me or because Mass told me and I'm

concerned about them. It's just that really she's

wearing me out. She just keeps showing up and

it's basically, I'm tired of seeing her face and her saying

the same argument. So I'm just going to give it to

her. Then the Lord says, now if, if

the unrighteous judge will do this, how much more God who is

just and that he'll bring these things about quickly.

All right. But at the end of this

statement, he makes this very powerful thought that moves us

into the times we're in now. And he says this at the end of

verse 8. He says, however, when the Son

of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

That's very powerful. You know, there are some new

things coming. OK.

One thing that's going to come new is that Jesus is going to

split the sky. That'll be new in the context

that He'll call us up with Him. That's going to be pretty

amazing. The first time he came, He came

through the womb. He left in the clouds, but he

returns in the clouds. So that'll be a new thing

coming. Jesus coming back in a cloud.

That's going to be amazing. You know what else is a new

thing coming? Revelation of God's Word, you

know, because when God continues to reveal himself of what you do

not know, that's something new coming.

But once I know what he has revealed, now coming is not the

issue I have because faith is now a faith believes it's

already settled. And you know, I'm thankful that

there are things Christ has already accomplished.

That's not a coming, but is a now is a here.

It already exists. It's like when he told the

disciples at one time, he said now Terry, here, be here until

the promise of the Father comes. Well, the Holy Spirit has come.

He came on the day of Pentecost. We're not waiting for him to

come again. He's already in the earth.

And so you understand, salvation has come.

It's here. In fact, this script, this comes

from Isaiah. Someone showed me 4319.

There's a new thing coming, a new way of doing things.

Well, there is a new thing that has happened, and that is the

death, burial, resurrection of Jesus.

And everything he has brought is already accomplished.

And so salvation is something you can receive right now.

It's not coming to you. You have it once you believe

it's already in existence. You know, the baptism of the

Holy Ghost and and receiving the endowment of power from on high

is something all you have to do is receive by faith.

It's not that it's coming, it already exists.

It's just a matter of you getting in the flow of what's

already there. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

You know what healing is? Something available right now in

your life. You can have healing in your

body. God will heal you immediately.

That can take place. Glory to God, Amen.

It's not something new coming. It's something that exists if

you'll access it by faith. So again, when we say these

things, we're not saying that we're waiting for something to

come. We will access what already

exists. But there are some things to

come, some prophecies that are still to be a fulfilled and

those are coming. You know what else is the new

thing coming? A new heaven and a new earth

that's coming. That's a new thing coming.

That's going to be something, you know, before that time,

there's a new thing coming called the millennial reign of

Christ. That's when Jesus comes back to

the planet, reigns on the earth, and in that first eternal stage

of where they're still sin in the earth, but he rules the

earth from Jerusalem. Hallelujah.

And so those are, that's the new thing coming when he topples all

of man's nations and they are to pay allegiance to him.

But then eventually he'll release the enemy one more time

who will deceive nations, and then they'll bring an attack

towards Jerusalem. But that won't last very long.

And then the last new thing coming is the new heaven and the

new earth. Glory to God, Hallelujah.

These are exciting times we're in.

But Jesus says, however, when the Son of Man comes, will he

find faith on the earth? Now the word find here means

this will he find after searching, which means he's

going to search for it. He had is making the effort to

locate. So he's going to come to the

earth with the intent am I finding faith and I'm going to

have to search for it. It means to find the thing

sought, which is a little disturbing.

The word find here means to be discovered.

It means to be recognized. It means to be detected.

That's a little disturbing statement because that means

when he returns, will he find after seek?

It's not so obvious that he has to look it out.

He has to go looking for it. I said he has to go looking for

it. Now this here could be when he

puts his foot down on the Mount Olives.

This definitely can be after what we consider the tribulation

period because man after that during that event, there's a lot

going on and faith would be scarce for sure during that

time. However, the Bible does tell us

prior to the catching away of the church is that is that oh

Jesus, thank you, Lord, as he said, there will be a great

falling away that will occur as well.

If you were with us Wednesday night, I, I encourage you need

to listen to that message online.

It's really powerful concerning the catching away.

And so with that being said, we want to be found in faith.

We want to be found in faith. The thing about faith is that

faith is a misused word. Many people, let me just say it

this way, everybody actually functions by faith, even the

lost. We have actually in, in one

sense, taken this word faith, and we have made it a religious

term meaning only church folk have faith.

But the Bible definition of faith is not excluded or only

characterized to the believer. Are you hearing me?

If we look at it in its strictest form of what faith

means. And so a lot of times we can

say, Oh yeah, I have faith or I believe God.

But do you have it? According to the Bible's

definition, faith is very important because again, when

the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Which means we need to be found in faith first.

John 54 because faith is powerful.

Look what it says here. Whatever is born of God

overcomes the world. And this is the victory that

overcomes the world, our faith. So if you want victory on planet

earth right now, faith is the answer.

I said faith is the answer. Faith is the answer.

One scholar said it this way. The grand difference between a

man divinely born and others is this, that he conquers the world

while others are conquered by it.

Amen. And if you are a believer, the

world should not conquer you. You should not be conquered by

the world. Now, when we say world, we're

not talking Earth. We're talking the systems in the

world. We're talking the the systems

that the Prince of the power of the air that the devil still

operates with and how he pulls, keeps people in darkness and

then tries to deceive those in the light to come back Into

Darkness. And there are systems that he

uses in order to keep us bound, to keep us from the things of

God and the and from God's Kingdom to manifest in our life.

However, when you function by faith, then the things of the

world do not overcome you. You overcome them in essence,

the things of the world come to you no different than the things

of the Kingdom they come by hearing in Romans chapter 10,

Romans 10:17

verse 17. We know this, but it's important

for us to see this, that when Paul's having this conversation,

he's making technically a blanket statement, and we can

see it in one sense with the comma.

So faith comes from hearing pause.

Just think about that for a moment.

That applies to everyone on the planet.

Faith comes by hearing. So whatever you're hearing is

producing faith. So that means faith is not a

religious word. Faith is not directly associated

with God. I'm going to say that again,

faith in just the definition of the word.

Faith itself is not specifically directed towards God.

Now Paul to the church in Rome, he's letting them know where

they're hearing should be after the comment says and hearing in

essence, you're hearing should be by the word of Christ.

In essence, he's saying if the faith you have should be the

result of what you've heard from the word of God.

I like this translation of the word of Christ because Christ is

the title of Jesus. Jesus is Jesus Christ, Christ is

the Messiah and and Christ is the Greek equivalent to that

Hebrew word Messiah, which is the king in essence.

You want your ear attentive to what Jesus who is King is saying

because he is supreme in authority.

His word rules forever. His word is life.

So he's saying to us, look, people's faith comes from

hearing, However you're hearing needs to come from listening to

the Lord. Can I get an Amen in the world?

Everyone is listening to something.

I mean, I would love to tell you that the majority of believers

are listening so much to the word and only the word rightly

divided. But the reality is, in the 168

days within a week, what you hear within a church and then

your own personal study tends to pale in comparison to the things

you're hearing at work, in your household, on XM radio, the

television, whatever it may be. A lot of things are trying to

affect your mind. And so you have to have a heavy

diet of being able to listen to God's Word so that you can

determine what you should keep in your in your hearing and what

you should disregard. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

So again, you know, there are some things that that I was

exposed to as a child that knowing the word today, I would

not participate in today. But the reality is because I

knew God's word, it I had a light source that helped me

overcome the things that I heard in darkness.

But they're but when people do not have a light source or

they're not around the word, then the things that are in

darkness continues to strengthen issues in there.

And the problem is, is because we in the church definitely do

not want to seem religious and seem like, you know, this

thing's about our personal works, us doing it of ourselves

so that God would look at us and say, hey, you're good enough

because none of us are good enough, right?

But there there are things that we are able to overcome because

of what we've heard in the word that other people do not

overcome. And so in the church, a lot of

times we sometimes participate or make excuse about certain

things that are out in the world that people are participating in

because we actually have something that reminds us that's

not real. However, those that are in

darkness, when they are in those activities, it just actually

feeds more darkness. It feeds more darkness.

Hallelujah. Maybe I want to be blunt, maybe

I don't thank you Jesus. Maybe I just want to say he who

has ears, let him hear. Hallelujah.

You know, if we don't watch out as a church, we will be very

dismissive of things that are in darkness, that someone who's not

exposed to light would carry them further, period, period.

Now, you have to have personal conviction.

Don't get me wrong. And again, you know, I can, I

can go in and out of places where darkness is at, but the

darkness doesn't affect me because I'm bringing the light.

However, if I was, if I were only in darkness, it would take

me into further darkness. And the things we're seeing in

our society today is because honestly, we sometimes are

downplaying dangers because we can discern the difference from

good and evil. That's good.

Whereas the loss cannot. And those that are groping in

darkness cannot. And the devil's very subtle at

how he does things. He kind of just chips away, you

know, and, and he's patient in one sense that he'll go from

generation to generation. And if you understand what you

know is in the Old Covenant generational curses, then you

know each generation is worse off than the generation before

because sin never gets better, it only gets worse.

Are you hearing what I'm saying? OK, so with that being said, you

know, I'll give you an example then I'm just going to give you

an example again. You're going to have a hard time

because you have light, but you're think of someone in

darkness. You know, when video games first

came out, I remember I was alive during its start.

And I remember Jamie, a friend of mine had the first Atari and

he had that game. Was it Pong?

You know where the little ball, you just had to put that little

line and bounce it back, right? And when I wasn't good at that

game, that I knew I was in trouble.

Especially today's games. Today's games are fully

immersive. It's a whole nother ball game.

And as much as I want to think that the immersion makes me

better, I found that that's not true because I took some staff

to a virtual game where we had to try to liberate from aliens.

OK, these, you know, fictional, non existent creatures.

And man, I felt like I was doing a pretty good job.

In fact, I didn't realize how many were killing me because all

of my staff were busy with other ones and they left my back

exposed. And so I'm in my goggles and I

don't realize that, you know, why is my screen turning red?

Well, I turned around and I got a whole bunch of them just

eating me right now. And I'm like, where's the rest

of my crew? You know, what are they doing?

And so, you know, being in the Army, you feel like, you know,

you can take them out. But the gamers gained.

They got that thing figured out all right.

Now, again, we were in a science fiction story.

So at the end of the day, there's no reality to these

particular creatures that we are dismembering.

So I start in Pong and then all of a sudden games progress to

other stuff. One of very big one was, you

know when they used to, I don't remember the name of the game,

but you would steal cars and police were always after you.

Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto.

Thank you. How many play Grand Theft Auto?

Thank you. Yep.

There you go. Now at the end of the day, what

are you saying? You're saying to yourself, it's

pretend, right? I would never in real life do

this. But why would you not do it?

Because you hear from the word of Christ that being against the

authority is unrighteous, that stealing is not the plan of God.

And honestly, you know, we assume.

That if Jesus was in the planet today, he would play the game.

Anybody believe Jesus would get in a game with you in Grand

Theft Auto? Why, It's just a game.

But now think if you are in a troubled house where nobody's

following God, come on, come on. And you've got issues with one

parent because the other one's already left and maybe is in

jail. And the spouse is talking about

how they were, you know, in justly incarcerated.

And you get your child. This game that progresses, you

know, to where now, you know, we have games where we're allowed

to, you know, shoot. And now today's games are

really, you know, lifelike. And yet for us, we're like, ah,

it doesn't mean anything. Well, someone's stuck in

darkness. It it can do something to your

mind to where all of a sudden, you know what we would say?

There's no way they're like, this is normal.

So again, we can be dismissive and the reason why we've become

dismissive is because we think faith is our word, right?

That's good. We believe faith only exists

with the church, yet faith comes from.

So if I'm hearing when I'm in my, you know, virtual world

about how we need to take out these authorities and we need to

go after them and how we need to do this at the other and we need

to steal this, and we'll level up here and we'll do this.

And we're constantly hours upon hours and we never go to a

church. We never hear the word of God.

We have our own challenges in life of, you know, parents, you

know, speaking down, you know, bullying at school.

All these things take place. And then we're like, I don't

understand why. I understand why because faith

comes by hearing, by hearing. See, when you're a child of the

light, you can look at someone who has been mistreated,

bullied, you know, abused, and you begin to give them a

different thought process that's so foreign to them because

they've not heard. All their life, they've only

heard. I've even been around believers

that grew up under oppressive parents, meaning the parents

were always that you're not good enough.

No matter what they did, they never felt good enough, never

good enough, never good enough, never good enough.

And that voice lingers so much that even when they were born

again, they became a child of God.

They begin to follow God at his word.

That one voice of their father stayed in their head.

And no matter what they did, they were still trying to please

someone who had built a stronghold in their mind through

hearing that even though they are completing Christ, they

still do not truly have faith in that.

And this is what the perplexing situation is.

Because when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in the

earth? He will find a firm persuasion

among man, but not towards him. So faith comes from hearing and

hearing by the word of Christ. Our hearing has to be, and

hearing is just how it comes. It doesn't mean you're in faith

just 'cause you heard. That's right.

How do we know this? James tells us this.

He tells us, he says don't. We cannot be deceived in our

faith because if we're a hearer only, we deceive ourselves.

We must be a doer of faith. We must be a doer of faith, not

just a here only. So hearing is is what gives us

the ability to develop a firm persuasion.

But a firm persuasion not acted on is actually not faith.

So it shows up, knocks on your mind's door, it resonates out of

your heart. Jesus reveals to you, hey, this

is my word concerning the situation you're going in.

Act on this. But if you do not begin to act

on that, then it's just hearing that can't faith came, but you

did not exercise it. And yet I get around a lot of

believers that say I'm of faith, but they're not exercising

nothing they're hearing. And it would be accurate

according to Scripture to say you are deceived in your faith

because you're not doing because I've gotten around a lot of

people in, you know, my Christian life now where the

excuse not to do is the examples of others.

So their faith is in more of ones that said they were

believing or said they would believe or are not believing.

And now we're going to change our belief in God because of

these experiences. Come on, that's good.

And give excuse because you understand, Nick, you have

personal responsibility. No one can stop you from living

by faith. No one.

If you want to believe God is word, you can believe God is

word period. And to say, well I can't do what

the Bible says because of this or that or how they did this.

Guess what you're doing? You're explaining away the word

of God's power in your life. Same in anyway now what is faith

Hebrews 11/1 now faith is the assurance of things hoped for

the convictions of things not seen.

You know what's crazy about this message today is that it is it

is such a repetitive message that we've done through the

years and it's such a repetitive message that has gone through

really every denomination because again you must have

faith in Christ. But the reality is is that faith

comes by hearing not having heard, which means it's active.

It's now, it's a now word. It's not a yesterday's word,

it's a now word. And you cultivate those things.

You understand, I love my wife not because I married her 30-4

years ago. It's because I choose today.

Today's my choice. And you know why I choose to do

that? Because I first choose to follow

God. Because when I do God His way,

then it puts me in the right position because I fear the

Lord. And as long as I'm doing that

now, it puts me in the position that every role that I play in

life, whether it's husband, father, apostle to a ministry, a

friend to somebody, it's all predicated on me obeying God at

His Word and then hearing God concerning whatever situation

I'm in based upon the relationship.

Because I'm even in faith with, with in relationships that I

don't have any more. Because I can believe that

things can be restored. People can repent because

there's a scripture that I believe love one another of

which were commanded, and that there's nothing anyone can ever

do, even if they fail, that they cannot be forgiven, treated as

if they've never done it. There's only one issue.

It's the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost.

And there may only be a couple people that I've known in my

lifetime that may be a candidate for that.

Are you hearing me? So what's it say?

Hebrews 11/1 it said. Now faith is the assurance of

things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So faith doesn't require it to be in a physical sense, natural

sense, to be faith. Faith believes it based upon

word alone. Now word alone for us is God's

Word. Everything going on in life

today can be boiled down to this.

What was said and what's the authority of the one saying it?

Period. That's the end.

What's being said and what's the authority of the one saying it?

Because for me, I go to the source of authority and his

name's Jesus. And honestly, in all of the

rhetoric that's out there to try to disprove God, disprove his

word. And, and, and people who do

this, who get on, because I had something, something sent to me

recently where, you know, somebody wanted to send me

something where somebody was ranting about, you know, all the

issues with the Bible and with God and all this stuff.

And in my mind, I'm thinking now then this is an interesting

thought. Here's a person that doesn't

even believe in God, doesn't believe he exists, and they're

firmly persuaded that's their faith.

Their faith is in no God. Their faith is in themselves and

their own ability to navigate based upon their what they

think's right. They are the final authority in

their life them. So they're trying to convince me

that what they're saying about God has more authority than what

God is saying about himself #1 #2 If you're so firmly persuaded

that God is not in existent, then why are you trying to

convince me anyway? You understand the role reversal

there isn't necessary. I am a critical thinker.

I, I do not take the, I'm not a baby bird.

So I'm like, OK, let's play the game.

Let's play the game. The game is God doesn't exist,

OK, doesn't exist. And man can live any way he

wants to. Great.

So you don't have to say anything then, because that's

how it will be. However, if you believe there is

a God, you actually have to say something because if I don't say

something and you live by what you think alone and you can do

it alone where you're wrong. If you're right that do it any

way you want to, it doesn't matter.

We just die and cease to exist or whatever their finality

belief is. It doesn't matter if I believe

that Jesus Christ died on the cross because it will prove to

not be correct. And you don't have to tell me

I'm wrong at all. And Paul even said this.

If if the resurrection of Christ is not, we are the most pathetic

people on the face of the planet, period.

And what is it to you whether I choose to want to pretend

there's a God and pretend that I'm following him and pretend

that I'll what's it matter? And what's it matter if I

convince most of the world and then we're all wrong.

Why? Because it took takes no faith

to just die like you in the sense that you know everything

we've had missed placed belief that ultimately cannot be

supported by someone who has the final authority to substantiate

what we're doing. We are our own issue.

But if I'm right now, if I'm right, you're miserable and you

need to hear right. You need to hear because really,

why are you telling me there is no God?

Who are you trying to save? Think about this.

They're trying to convince us God doesn't to save us from

what? In essence, you're trying to be

a save. Oh, you don't want to.

They are trying to be a savior. Oh, so you want to?

You want to be Jesus now and save everybody from their

miserable belief in God and that Interesting.

Now they're so mad that we put our trust in a savior named

Christ when they really want us to put our faith in them as

Savior. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. You know how many believers are

swayed, though, by people who come up with these thought

processes? Yeah, honestly, I don't have

time to to go and and debunk all the stuff that people tried to

send me, you know, to try to prove me wrong, right?

I don't, I don't have to. I wasn't asked to do that.

I was asked to just present truth.

And whether you accept it or not, that's on you.

But I'm going to stay with the Lord because He is the way, the

truth and the life, and nobody gets to the Father but through

him. Hallelujah.

And the good news is I'm not wrong and I won't have to prove

that. Jesus will prove it.

Praise the Lord, Amen. You just need to say to him, why

are you so afraid of someone named Jesus now?

Faith is the assurance of things, hope for the conviction

of things not seen. Let me give you an example what

this looks like. Have you ever been around

someone that says, oh, it's flu season, I'm going to get the flu

this year, I better go get a vaccine to help myself out.

Now. What are they?

That's a firm persuasion. They're firmly persuaded.

I'm not against vaccines. I'm not.

I'm just saying this how people think I need to do this because

today, I mean, how many years has it been past COVID yet I

still go to the airport and people have become firmly

persuaded that wearing a mask in public is safer.

Is is safer for them. I don't have a problem if you

worry about I don't care. I'm just saying that shows firm

persuasion. Firm persuasion.

You act on that. They it is such in their mind

that there are things out here that I could contract that I'm

going to cover my mouth to make sure I don't get that.

And how do we know they believe that?

Because the mask is the evidence of that belief.

It is the step they're going to. And if they want to go that

stuff, I don't care. Doesn't matter to me.

I'm not saying it's wrong at all.

I'm saying it's just an evidence of a belief.

That's what I'm saying. And so we see in the world all

the time, people have evidences of their belief by what they say

and how they act, how they actually live carry out their

life. So this is when he says again,

they're not even sick yet because they are concerned they

could be because they've heard it could come this way.

This is the precaution that they live in, which means now they're

acting on what they are firmly persuaded by a word because

we're we're currently not in a pandemic in the in the planet

now are more coming? Yes, because the Bible tells us

in the last days there will be rumors of wars, wars and rumors

of wars. There will be famines and

pestilence where pestilence has to do with pandemics if you

break down that particular word. So more coming where they're

going to say all this is happening and disease is going

to be moving. The enemy's doing everything he

can to isolate, quarantine us off, no personal touch because

he don't want the gospel of the Kingdom to spread.

He wants things to be hindered. Now, no matter what he does,

we're still going to get their composite task because greater

is he that's in us than he that's in the world.

We just need to waver. Not all right now.

Romans chapter 4, verse 20 and 21 says this with respect to the

Romans 4:20

promise of God. Abraham did not waver in

unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.

Verse 21 and being fully assured are firmly persuaded.

One translation says that what God had promised he was able to

perform. Will God do what he says?

Does God perform his word? God said I have sent forth my

word, it will not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish

that which it was sent to do. Now people try to rebuttal that

said well God said this but it doesn't happen.

God always does what he says. God will say things concerning

you that if you'll be in faith you'll have it, but if you don't

if you choose not to do it, it's not a God promise a you problem.

So when people try to say God won't do again, when you put God

in this category, that God is controlling everything, even the

evil, well, first of all, your paradigm of God is wrong and not

even scriptural. That's right, 'cause God is not

controlling evil, God is not committing evil acts.

God is not participating in rape, murder, adultery,

fornication, all the things that he's not participating.

Man's doing that of his own free will.

God is giving them an answer of how to come out, how to be

delivered, how to have victory over all these things that

attach and try to attack your flesh and get you to live by the

flesh. And if you'll by faith believe

His word that you can do it the other way, then you'll have

victory over the world. You'll have victory over your

flesh, you'll overcome it. You'll cause your flesh to be

crucified. That is not God controlling

that. That is God giving us an

opportunity, and Abraham by faith believe God.

Now here's the thing about Abraham.

Abraham's belief, this particular passage, is that he

has to believe that what God says concerning a descendant is

true. That is a child born not only of

him, but of his wife Sarah. We treat faith in the church as

if God's doing it independent of us.

Yet the person that is the father of faith, the father of

us all, gives us the example that it is a doing of a word

that is true faith. Which means then Abraham at a

time it says he did not contemplate his own body being

dead. Meaning I shouldn't be able to

have kids. Now my wife has never had

children and when the test came of who was having the problem,

it became real clear it was my wife and not me because when she

told me to sleep with her maidservant and I did, she got

pregnant. So I knew I was fine at that

time. But now he's older and he's

thinking, man as old as I am, could I even offspring a child

now? He had kids even after Sarah,

but the coveted child was to come through Sarah, of which God

spoke that. And he spoke this before he even

mentions kids. He says your name's Abraham.

You're the father of many nations with no descendants.

And Abraham's asking the question, well, we, me and Sarah

have no kids. So that doesn't mean that my

servant here, he's going to be the one that gets the blessing.

And God's like, no, he's coming from you and your wife.

So when she's 90 and he's 100, he does not contemplate the

natural evidence, but by faith he believes we're going to have

a child. Now, did he have a child through

Immaculate Conception? No.

That means Abraham had to be a doer of the word.

And that means I'm going to have to have intercourse with my wife

at this age. And when when Sarah looked back

at every word God had ever said to her husband concerning other

things, Hebrew says, she looked back on the faithfulness of God

and it gave her the ability to conceive.

See, Sarah knew her womb was dead.

The one who had the biggest mind struggle was Sarah, because once

Hagar got in play and she became pregnant.

Do you understand I'm the problem now?

Every time he sleeps with her saying we're going to have a

child, she's like, no, no, we're not.

I'm the one broken. It's me.

I mean, it's clear now. But she looked back at what God

said about this with Abraham and what God said about this with

Abraham and what God said about this with Abraham.

And she said, you know, I've noticed that everything God has

told you he's done. And now that I have seen all of

these times that your stance in his word brought the victory he

has. To be fair, I believe I can have

a child, although there's never been evidence that I could.

And it was in that moment. She was she, she conceived the

promised child. And his name is Isaac.

Hallelujah. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

So this firm persuasion is someone when you act on that

when you're a doer. Faith is not coming to church

unless you're coming to church is because you're here because

of this Scripture. Do not forsake the assembling of

ourselves together. Can I sit here for a minute and

ponder just for a few moments. Go.

We're new water baptism here in a second.

Are you in faith when you come to church?

Now? I say that because it says he

wavered, not at unbelief. There are times that you're

doing something that coming to church, You're not going to make

that. I get it.

But those should be rarities. It should.

If you're a person of faith and you come to church actually by

faith, that means you are coming because you believe that God

called us to assemble, that you are part of the body and we're

jointed and fitted. And how could I not be connected

with someone that God has assigned me to?

How can Sunday morning become optional to situations in my

life? Because when you live by faith,

I'm firmly persuaded I am not to forsake the assembling of myself

together and that God has a word for me and I'm coming.

Now again, I'm not using this as a religion.

I'm just saying this is by faith.

And this is the problem because most of us, when we live by

faith, we live by faith without intentionality.

We're really living by faith, just by you know well what what

will be will, because God's in control and I just believe him.

And I may not know what's going on, but I believe it.

Well, how are you believing something that you don't know

what's going on? Because faith is comes by

hearing the word, not from not hearing something.

And you believe nowhere does the Scripture say that we are in

faith just because we generally believe that he exists.

You know, the Bible says that the demons believe God and

tremble because they know His Word, but yet it won't change

their life, doesn't change their life.

And there's a lot of human beings that, well, I believe in

God. Well, you may believe there is a

God, but you're not living by faith, at least not according to

the word of Christ. You are living by faith

according to the words of men. Well, I don't have to go to

church. I don't have to read my Bible, I

don't have to pray. And that interesting Jesus said

when you pray and then through this Apostle Paul, he's like

pray without ceasing, always be connected in prayer.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, not 5th, not after you've had

your career and retirement. Now you have nothing else to do.

So go to church, right? The life of faith is literally

recognizing that God's word is supreme and authority in my life

first and why is it because he's life is this is not a religious

exercise, It's relationship. I mean you understand when when

you fulfill the word of God in your life and the relationship

you have. OK, how can I say let me say it

in Ephesians chapter 5, he said husbands love your wife as

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Christ loved the church. OK, not as Christ loved the

world. OK, I'm going to say that again.

Does Christ love the church? Does God love the world?

Yes. Does he love?

Does he want everyone to repent? Absolutely.

But Christ loved the church, that he wanted this

relationship, that it would become so intimate it could be

compared to a husband and wife. Now, if you actually have a

great marriage, then this is going to be a pretty easy

conversation, which is no one begs me to go home.

Hey, you going to go home? Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know, man.

Just thinking about laying out tonight.

You know, I was. I don't want to go, you know.

Yeah, but, you know, you have a what?

Yeah, I got. She'll be there, you know,

she'll be there when I get there.

Whenever I want to be there. I mean, you understand, we treat

God like this a lot of times, you know, it's all.

But he's with me everywhere I go.

Some places people are going. He's not there.

Now, I'm not saying he's not in you and the places you take him.

Sometimes he's saying, hey, what are you doing here?

We're not of this world. We're not doing this anymore.

This is not our participation. It's not what we're doing.

I did not send you an evangelistic outing.

Are you hearing me? I mean, it's pretty easy for me

to want to be with my wife and vice versa.

Now, do we always get along? No.

Do we always have opportunities for, you know, conversation?

Yeah, there are opportunities. We are two willful people coming

together and there's challenges. And you just.

And how do you win the end of those challenges?

We both yield to what God says, not what we say.

And when we do that, then where's good?

No problem. However, God doesn't sin.

God is always the perfect side of the relationship.

So why am I not running to Him? Why?

Surely we would run to Him. Surely we would want to read His

Word. Surely we would want to be in

prayer, Surely we would. It's our flesh that keeps us,

which is the part of us that hinders the relationship.

And you know, I don't like being in a disagreement with my wife

where the relationship now is being hindered.

Unfortunately, sometimes in my life, you know, when situations

I'll even get on the clock and I'll think, my gosh, man, if I

don't resolve this, this is like wasted minutes, a wasted hour.

I don't want the arguments in my life and the disagreements to

account to decades. If I was married to her for 50

years, 10 of them were in conflict.

Nor do I want to walk through the planet and say, you know

what, I was on the planet in Christ.

But I really only spent about five years with Him.

And I only say this because He is the one who tied it to the

marriage relationship. But again, marriages never are

at the level of what we are with God anyway because

unfortunately, we are always dealing with the flesh.

And by knowing that, I recognize that I don't make my wife

perfect, Christ makes her complete.

So I don't put her in a box of perfection, but I do expect that

she would yield to the word of the Lord, of which she is a

woman of God and does just that. And she expects the same from

me, that I'm going to yield to the word of God, that I'm not

going to do what I think I should do.

And there's many times my wife is right about situation.

Like, honey, you're right about that situation.

And again, I'm going to do what you say not because she's the

one in authority, but he's the one in authority.

So we work together. Well, you only can do that when

you actually have a relationship, and faith comes

because you're fully persuaded in the relationship that the one

you're talking to has the power to produce the word in them.

My wife may not do what she said she would do, and I may not do

what I said I was going to do with my wife, and a lot of

forgiveness has to happen. But God has never failed to do

what He said He would do first. Peter 125 says this, but the

word of the Lord endures. How long?

Come on, how long? How long is it endure?

So the final authority is the Word of the Lord.

Our faith should come from hearing Him.

And this is the Word which was preached to you.

This is what we endeavor to preach to you.

The reason why you know a church body who desires to rightly

divide the Word of truth becomes associated with a cult is

because our thinking is so contrary to the Word and the

world's way of navigating life. We do not make an excuse to live

fleshly. We always go, what does the Word

say? And again, when you want to live

by the flesh, you want to accommodate the flesh.

But when you want to live by the Word of God according to

righteousness, then you don't accommodate the flesh, you

crucify the flesh. God never said to accommodate

the flesh. He says to crucify you.

And so when you crucify the flesh, then the next thing you

know you get around people and they come to you.

You know, Eric, they'll come to me and say, well, pass her away.

Well, you know, I have no opinion in the matter, but my

king says So what you should do? Well, they don't like that.

So what they do then they go to Rafael.

Rafael, this here and they want to get a different opinion.

But next thing you know, he's listening to the voice of the

King too, which sounds the same as what I said.

And then they're like, OK, so then they go try to find someone

else. Let me go over here to Nick.

Nick. And that's like, well, what does

the Bible say? Well, you are just a bunch of

talking heads. You all say the same thing.

This is like a cult. Well, I'm only supposed to say

what God's saying because your faith's supposed to come from

the Word, not from my opinion. That doesn't mean I can't

sympathize with your problem, but Jesus can sympathize with

your problem. Jesus has compassion for you,

but more importantly, He's already paid the price for you

to overcome. You want me to give you the most

powerful faith statement? There's nothing you're in right

now that hasn't already been dealt with and that you, through

forgiveness and the application of your part towards that

situation, can't have the power to of God.

It will renew your mind and you can walk around as if nothing

ever happened wrong. Period.

They'll never come a point. There's nothing Brian you could

ever do to your wife in one sense, or really nothing.

There's there's a opportunity because of a scenario, but the

reality is through true forgiveness, God can restore

anything that ever happens and you can live as if nothing ever

messed up ever. That's the power of the blood

and forgiveness. And if we don't remember that,

then the reality is we'll look for reasons to do something

different. This is what people do with

church and they still say they have faith.

This is what they do in their marriages and they still say

they still have faith. This is what they do, you know,

at work. And they still say they have

faith when the reality is they're just not firmly

persuaded by what they heard from Christ.

They're firmly persuaded what they heard from somebody else in

a similar situation. And let me just close with this

thought. OK, again, first Peter 125 said,

But the word of the Lord endures forever.

Today you're in trouble. You're in trouble today because

everybody wants you to take your phone out and hold it up.

Yeah, get your phone because you got it anyway.

Most of you, some of you been on anyway, checking other stuff.

Hold up real high. Be proud.

You got it. Thank you.

All right, now turn your flashlight on.

All right, now. So let me see them.

We're in a concert somewhere, so for fun.

This is cool. Wow.

This is cool. I kind of wish the cameras were

here right now. OK.

Yeah. Let you like shine.

People let you like shine. OK, here's the problem.

Because of AI and the fact that your phone is listening to you,

guess what it is doing? It's accommodating the opinions

of what you hear. If you keep saying that the

catch in the way of the church ain't real, then Instagram's

going to send you reels of people who support what you say.

If you say that the Republican Party are Nazis, then your

social media is going to support that thought with plenty of

reals, or vice versa. Whatever you are saying.

Somebody and and AI is listening to every sermon.

But AI doesn't have the ability to discern which is false and

which is real. That's your responsibility.

So if you're picking up a thought process that isn't

supported from Scripture, but it does support your feelings, then

next thing you know, like look what so and so said, look what

so and so said, And then somebody wants to send me some

minister. I don't care what minister it

is, and I don't care what their name is.

Their name isn't Jesus. And if we'll go through the word

and go there, that's what we want to go with.

Because I guarantee you, you'll find things that support what

I'm saying and I can get send you up 15 pastors that believe

what I'm saying because it's listening.

I'm talking to my children about going somewhere for Christmas

and now I'm getting all these. That place is showing up.

Why is it listening to me? Because technology, the enemy

can utilize it just and there he's being more successful

because of the illiteracy of the body of Christ that doesn't want

to study the word, but just wants to have a you know

someone, a talking head, tell them that they're awesome.

You're amazing and you are amazing, but you're amazing

because you apply. You're amazing because he

created you this way to be, not to just know that you are and do

nothing but look like you're not.

That has to constantly affirm that you are something you're

not acting like. So you're going to get plenty of

algorithms that are going to help support your narrative.

You talk bad about your boss, you're going to find plenty of

reals to support what you think about your boss and its

attitude, and then you'll turn around and start showing it to

your employees. Look, I told you they were this.

Look at this. See these attributes?

That's just like them. See there?

This is dangerous ground. What are you doing?

You're forming your belief on what you're hearing from a

source you do not even know. It's credible, but it sure makes

you feel vindicated, justified and right in your mind.

But when we go to Scripture, that's where the tell tale shows

up because the scripture is not mere words, it's spirit.

And those words will begin to say, yeah, but you need to look

at this. Yeah, but what you're thinking

right now, I'm not going to agree with.

Wait a minute, now I Well, what a Yeah, that's not right.

Because if you actually seek, he'll navigate you to truth.

And at that point you've got to make a decision.

Choose Jesus or choose Barabbas. Matthew 2435.

It says heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not

pass away. In these last days we have to

waver, not because we are going to be bombarded.

We're going to be bombarded with other thoughts, technology.

Is now wired programmed to support your current thinking

pattern. I do not go to my phone to

reinforce the truth that I am seeking.

I stay in the word because I know it's dangerous.

Now I know it's dangerous. I'm very cautious because when I

know a truth and then it shows up from someone else, I have to

be very cautious not to get excited and say, well, at least

I'm not the only one who thinks this because that's a false

reality. There's a lot of people having

that kind of reinforcement in their mind.

I'm not the only one who sees it this way.

Well, the enemy has got a lot of smoke and ladders.

At the end of the day, I want to know based upon not you and you

and you as the witness, but the Scriptures, the context.

That's the witness. I need no other witness than

that. You're hearing what I'm saying.

I don't need man's witness. I need God's Word as the witness

to what truth is. And if we just happen to believe

that what He says is the truth, praise God.

But I'm not more firmly persuaded with His because you

believe it too. It's because I believe it

according to His Word.