Consider Jesus

Lift our Bibles up, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Say this together, say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be in your presence.

I'm reminded today of how good you are to me.

I've got my eyes on you.

I've got my eyes on our covenant.

I've got my eyes on your promise.

I will not be denied.

I believe I've received all that I need today to be victorious and be a witness of how good a God we serve.

In Jesus name, amen, you can be seated.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews, and we're going to look in the third chapter and also the twelfth chapter, hebrews 3, verse 1, first.

Hebrews 3:1

And that doesn't say Paul wrote this, but I believe Paul wrote this, it sounds like him.

It's written with the revelation of who we are in Christ which he had, that revelation so strong, and written to Hebrews, which means they come from a background of Judaism and earning your way and having to satisfy all the rules.

And so the whole theme of Hebrews, you know, is Jesus is better than all that stuff.

It's better than Aaron, the high priest, it's better than the angels.

He's better, jesus is better.

That's the whole theme, and so it's good for us.

It's written for us.

Hebrews 3, 1, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider Everybody shout, consider, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, or our confession.

Same word the apostle and high priest of our profession, christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

See, jesus is better than Moses.

I mean, the Jews revered Moses so much so that when he died, god hid his body so that they wouldn't embalm him.

They knew how to embalm from the Egyptians and turn Moses' body into an idol.

That's how revered Moses was.

And he's saying hey, jesus is better than Moses, for this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he also hath builded the house.

Who that hath builded the house hath more honor than the house, alright.

And then Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Hebrews 12:1

Than the house, alright.

And then Hebrews 12.

Verse 1.

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is setet us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Looking unto Jesus.

Everybody say looking, looking.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him.

There that word is again.

Everybody shout consider, for consider him that hath endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.

So just a simple message today to remind you to consider Jesus, to consider Jesus.

All he did for you, all he is doing for you, and he's not through.

I've got a whole series of messages on the present day ministry of Jesus.

A lot of people think Jesus is sitting around at the right hand of God and not doing anything.

His plate's full and part of what he's doing is he's watching over our words.

He's the apostle and high priest of our words.

He's the Apostle and high priest of our words.

The word profession, the word confession, your confession of faith, what you say about things, jesus is our high priest.

See, the church would kind of that doesn't mean a lot to us.

We didn't live under Judaism, we didn't have a high priest.

He's the high priest.

They had a, they had a high priest and and you know, it changed all the time.

But once Jesus got on the scene, there was no more need for any more.

He's the only, he's the lone one.

And so what is he doing?

Well, he's administering, executing, implementing and carrying into effect what you say about things.

So what are you saying about things?

What are you saying about things?

See, it's easy.

See.

The Bible says consider Jesus, consider the apostle and high priest of your confession or your profession.

The word consider means to fix your eyes and your mind on, fix your gaze.

When we saw that in Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, you know it means to take your eyes off of one thing and fix it on another.

Are you with me now?

On another, are you with me now?

It's easy to lose our concentration and quit focusing on Jesus.

And then what happens to us?

Well, in Hebrews 10, 23, he says don't, you can start wavering, start wavering.

Hebrews 10, 23,.

I want to read it.

It says let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.

He is faithful.

Who promised these are the days, these are the end times, this is the last of the last days, and the devil is busy about setting dumpster fires in every direction.

I mean here.

He's got a dumpster fire over here.

And here you're driving down the road, you're running your race with patience and all of a sudden here's a dumpster fire over here and you get kind of amazed and you start looking at that and, oh, my goodness, look at that fire.

I wonder what's going to happen.

Oh, look at the embers are going up and I hope it doesn't land on my roof.

And then, boom, you run off the road.

You know you run off.

My dad taught me how to drive.

I had driver's ed, but before I had driver's ed I had my dad, and my dad let me.

When I was 12, I drove all the way from Refurio to Victoria.

He's in a, I mean a 58 Ford.

I'm driving down 77 all the way from Refugio to Victoria, 12 years old.

And back then they had this single.

There was a road over the San Antonio, a bridge over the San Antonio River, and it was so narrow you could just I mean you had to hold your breath.

You know his car's just barely Forget about an F-350 Ford.

You know, forget with those big old mirrors sticking out like Jay's got.

You know, those big old mirrors stick out and you hit your head every time in the parking lot.

I know it's never happened to you.

It's happened to me a lot more than I'd like to admit, but there's no way that's going to fit on that bridge.

Now you got this.

Now you got this.

Now you got this.

Just hold your way.

You're doing fine.

You're doing fine, and I'm just thinking, oh my God, that the next car is going to take the side of the car.

We're going to have a wreck and I would just breathe.

I'd just let off.

I made it through that bridge, but he taught me to drive way down the road.

Look down the road.

Don't just look out the end of the hood, look down the road, down the road at 60 miles an hour.

Here's my engineering coming out.

At 60 miles an hour, you're driving 88 feet for every second.

And who drives 60?

60.

If I'm on the interstate, I ain't driving 60 because I'm going to get run over.

It's another thing he taught me Keep up with the traffic.

If the traffic's 70, drive 70.

Don't worry about the speed limit.

You can die obeying the speed limit.

Young people, now you don't abuse what I'm saying.

He taught me to drive down the road.

He taught me to look down the road because you're going to get there real quick.

One time we were driving again, I'm young'm young, 14 or something and we're driving from houston back to refurio and I got the first leg of the trip coming out because he wanted me to have experience driving in houston.

And so we're driving and we're going through, and back then we didn't have the southwest freeway all built out like it is today, so we were going down a whole highway 90, through through sugar land and and it was four lanes but it wasn't divided.

And he said now you keep driving way down the road.

Now, son, because this is traffic and there's a lot of stuff going on.

And right about that time, way down the road, on the other side of the road, on the shoulder of the other side of the road, I saw this car and the back end of the car went up in the air like this and it started tumbling and going in every direction.

It had a huge wreck, but it was a mile down the road.

I just saw the dust and the wreck of it.

He said oh, you see that.

I said I'm seeing it.

He said well, move over to the right lane, put as much distance between that wreck and you and get ready to have to stop.

He said, even though it's not in our lane, these people are all going to stop.

See, he taught me how to drive.

And see, the Word of God will teach you how to run your race to win.

If you'll consider him Easy to lose concentration Looking off to the side, getting involved with stuff that's not that important for your life.

Yeah, you know what's going on, but don't fix your gaze on that.

Look unto Jesus.

Take your eyes off the distraction and fix your mind and your eyes on the Lord.

Distraction and fix your mind and your eyes on the Lord.

So, first thing is consider the word, because Jesus and his word are one, aren't they?

I had only been saved a week and I was involved in a Bible study in my neighborhood and the lady that was teaching it went to Lakewood, her and her husband.

He was, you know, mid-level executive with Chevron and worked with my brother-in-law.

They worked together at Chevron, you know, and they all they got laid off, like all the oil patch people and you know, anyway, but in those days you had Compaq Computer, had a lot of people doing well in Compaq and they all got laid off.

See, we've seen what's going on in our economy right now.

It's got history and it's evil, anyway.

So we're getting back to that Bible study.

I mean the very first Bible study she got up to teach.

She said, okay, the subject tonight is who is Jesus.

And I mean who is Jesus?

And she taught John.

Chapter one In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

And the Word was God In verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus is the Word.

I never heard that in the Catholic church.

I'm a Catholic boy.

You know.

I was president of the Knights of the Altar.

I went to Catholic school.

Nobody ever told me that Jesus and the Word are one.

It's amazing.

Keep your eyes on the Word, don't get distracted.

I know I sound like a broken record, but so much the more as we see the day approaching.

Amen, oh, I tell you.

We just know that Jesus is coming soon.

We know all the signs are around us.

As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man, as it was in the days of Noah.

Violence, violence, violence.

So I like Acts 20, 32.

Apostle Paul was meeting with the elders of the church that he had been meeting with in Ephesus and he said you know, the word of God is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance.

God's got an inheritance for you.

You'll never get it if you don't consider the word, if you don't pay attention and fix your eyes and your heart on what the word says.

You've heard me say this.

But the first question when trouble comes is what does the word say about this situation?

That's the first question, not Mildred.

What are we going to do now?

No, that's not the question.

The question is what does the Word have to say about this situation?

I say it over and over because we need to be reminded why.

Because there's all kinds of dumpster fires.

There's all kinds of distractions.

There's all dumpster fires.

There's all kinds of distractions.

There's all kinds of headlines.

There's all kinds of evil things going on one day after another.

I mean it's just amazing how incompetent across the entire world leadership is.

Everywhere you look, there's incompetence.

See, don't focus on that, because what that is is a spirit of Antichrist.

A lot of it's intentional.

It's hard not to look at the failure to protect our president.

It's hard to look at it as pure incompetence.

It's on purpose.

Now, I said it, I said it online, I said it to everybody that's listening.

I don't care who hears it.

I'm not the only one that's saying it.

I mean, if you've got eyes to see, you can see that.

But what am I saying?

Well, I'm saying praise God, god is not through with America.

Hallelujah, there's a great harvest coming.

You can see the plumb line being dropped from heaven and the sheep and the goats are getting divided the wheat.

And what does the Word say about this?

You know we were building this church.

We had moved into this.

This is phase one, right here at the sanctuary, the original children's church over there, all the sprung structures, the vinyl structures were phase one.

The metal building is phase two.

So we knew we were just trying to get in this building any way we could.

And you know, our first building, seated around 300.

The second building seated around 600.

The third building seated around, or the seated 800.

The second, third, the third building, seated 600.

So 800, 600.

There's no way I'm going to build a little old sanctuary.

We built a thousand seats.

This will hold a thousand chairs.

We've had them in here before.

That's no way I'm going to build a little old sanctuary.

We built 1,000 seats.

This will hold 1,000 chairs.

We've had them in here before.

That's why they're all stacked up over there.

We don't need them yet, but get ready.

I mean, it's going to get crowded in here.

We're going to move the aisle smaller and it's going to be a little tighter.

It's going to be like flying Southwest Airlines.

We flying Southwest Airlines, we'll have better service, but anyway, our flight attendants are a lot friendlier and we're going to a destination that you just it's gonna blow you, it's gonna blow your mind.

The destination.

But anyway, we were considering 2007.

I heard, you know, right after about 2006,.

I realized that this was not going to be our.

You know, I wasn't going to develop this big piece of property.

That's why we took it, because I thought we were going to develop this whole piece of property and have a use for it.

I thought we were going to develop this whole piece of property and have a use for it.

I even have an architect's rendering of a general plan for that to happen.

But then God spoke to me and said no, that's not my plan.

So I had to switch gears, but I did know that we needed to add on to the building because it was too small in relation to the sanctuary.

We were already running out of space, and youth and children's church and our offices were insufficient.

So we started trying to come up with a design.

How many of you remember 2008?

You know 2008.

We had Ike in 2008.

And that cost the church about $75,000, $80,000 that we never got back or didn't get back right away.

I mean just people couldn't come to church, the economy was hurt.

And how many of you remember the October surprise in 2008 and the run-up to the election between Obama and Dipstick?

What's his name?

He's dead now.

Mccain, mccain, oh God.

And Dipstick what's his name?

He's dead now.

Huh, mccain, oh God, mccain, I'm going to start manifesting now, but anyway, flip a coin.

It's almost that bad.

But remember, the Democrats always have a surprise in October.

They've got one coming up.

Get ready, be ready for surprises.

And that surprise was that the entire banking industry had the subprime mortgage.

They had invested too heavily in mortgages that were badly underrated just to give poor people a chance to be a homeowner.

Well, you know, that's kind of stupid.

What is that?

Communism is what that is, when people can't afford to buy what you're selling and you give it to them and then the bank can't collect the mortgage.

That's communism.

That's buying votes.

That's what the open border is all about.

Buying votes, okay, that's what it's for.

Do they care about these people?

No, they don't care about them.

They're buying their votes and then when the money shrivels up, then all the goodies are going to disappear.

So that's what happened.

All of a sudden, they woke up in October and says they're in crisis, they've got to be bailed out.

They need a trillion dollars.

Who are we bailing out?

Big fat wall street dirt bags that deserve to go to prison?

They don't deserve.

And all the, all the people that are holding the, the, the stock on those banks, deserve to lose, not the American people.

We didn't do this, they did this and so they had this big meeting.

I don't know, y'all don't remember, but I remember like it was yesterday, because here we are planning to build a building and all of a sudden, the October surprise hits and Obama is hoping, change.

Surprise hits and Obama is a hope and change and people voted for a blank check.

A guy that nobody knew anything about.

We do know something about Commie Harris.

We better pay attention to what we know about her.

He's a communist, I gave up on socialists.

There's no such thing anymore.

It's communism, they're godless.

And so what happened was here we are.

So I started talking to the lender.

Oh yeah, pastor, just whatever you want, we got the money, we'll be ready to go.

We'll be ready to move as soon as you are.

Then the October surprise hit, and we're in the middle of planning the building, and so we started getting some of the plans back.

I wanted to use the same type of construction going into the expansion, and I'm talking about consider Jesus.

Now I haven't lost my train of thought, don't you think I'm going off on a rabbit trail?

This is, on the subject, about considering the Word.

And right then I was considering the word that says count the cost.

Jesus said count the cost, make sure you've got enough to build the building.

That's what I told him.

I said, lord, we're going to count the cost.

And so I started counting the cost.

Man, it was ridiculous, because when they bailed out the banks, the dollar fell in value to all around the country, and this building is built in Canada.

This material comes from Canada.

We have to deal with Calgary, canada.

Well, the Canadian dollar went way up, so the prices went sky through the roof and they gave me the or, gave James and us the bid back and it was outrageous and we thought, well, we can't do that, we're going to have to cut back.

And we cut way back on the square footage that we were going to add and it was just not really even quite enough what we really needed.

And I didn't like that.

I didn't like the price and the interest rate.

By that time, the interest rates had climbed 2009 now and the interest rates had climbed.

It was 8.5% and we were paying six.

Well, you know, that made about a $10,000 a month difference on our payment.

And so I said well, lord, I'm counting the cost.

I don't like the cost and in my spirit I believe it was my spirit picking up what the Holy Ghost was saying.

He said it's time to consider the cost of doing nothing.

Just like that.

Just like that, I mean, here I am sweating bullets, here I am frustrated.

The lender's calling me pastor.

You need to make a decision on this loan.

We can't hold these funds forever.

I mean, we've got a lot of competition.

By the way, they came to town and loaned a bunch of money to ethnic-based churches who, when Obama got involved and got in charge.

They decided well, this is our reparations, we're not going to pay the money back.

They had millions of dollars lent here to churches right here in Houston that defaulted on their mortgages and Double Dog dared the lender to take the money, take the churches back, tied them up in court.

And we then were the ones that you know, and I and I, when I saw all the rigmarole, they made us go through to get this mortgage, after God said it's time to count the cost, see, I would have walked away.

I would, if I was just doing it.

From my standpoint, I would have walked away from it.

But the Holy Ghost said here there's a cost of doing nothing.

So I didn't.

By that, I knew that God was going to supply our needs.

See, I mean, I'm talking about consider the word.

If I walk according to John Griner's logic, I would have walked away and we would have been stalled.

No telling, really, there's no telling.

What would have happened if I hadn't obeyed the word.

Are y'all getting anything out of this?

God always knows what he's doing, whether we do or not.

He knows Time to consider the cost of doing nothing.

So I did, and so you know what we did.

We decided okay, sprung, we're sorry, but you priced yourself out of the market.

At the same time, metal buildings fell.

Nobody was building any metal buildings because the interest rates went up and metal buildings were going begging man, we got a great deal.

We built twice as much square footage with metal buildings.

It wasn't my desire to mix it up on here, but I think it turned out really nice.

I don't care.

We considered the cost of doing nothing and we did something for God to get involved with us.

This is helping you today.

Consider the Word.

Number two, consider the Holy Ghost.

See, the Word and the Spirit always agree and when I got that Word, then I had peace.

The word brought me peace where I could take a step of faith.

And no because of my history.

You've heard my history in home building.

You've seen all the trouble I brought on myself and my family by just walking in natural wisdom.

It's never the answer.

It's always the answer to consider the Word and to consider the Spirit, because the Word and the Spirit always agree.

I mean the greater one 1 John 4, 4,.

Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world.

The Holy Ghost is in you to put you over, to give you victory.

He's not going to sit there and let you sit on the sidelines and not get into the game.

He wants you to win and we all have a part in this massive effort, this tremendous harvest that's going to be coming.

It's on the way.

I'm telling you Glory to God.

The greater everybody say, the greater one lives in me to put me over.

So we consider the word, see, we look upon it, see, we take our eyes off the distractions and we fix it firmly on the word.

Fix it firmly on what the Holy Ghost it firmly on what the Holy Ghost is saying or what the Holy Ghost is indicating through the witness.

We talked a lot about the leadership of the Holy Ghost the last two weeks, and so this message kind of puts it together so that you can walk by faith.

You know we're designed to walk by faith, not by sight.

So that brings me to the third thing.

Consider not.

There are some things to consider not.

Consider not what you feel or think, or see 2 Corinthians, 5, 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight, not by what seems like we don't walk by, seems like.

Well, you know, it just seems like I could have said that, and I did say that.

Boy, it seems like this is not the right way to go.

The interest rates are high, the prices are high.

It just doesn't look right.

But we had a need.

That didn't change the need.

We had the need.

I mean, the need didn't go away just because of those other two factors.

So then, thank God, the Holy Ghost was able to communicate his plan.

He said well, it's time to count the cost of doing nothing.

Oh, okay, yeah, oh yeah, wow, I Guess I didn't know there was a cost of doing nothing.

Then you're telling me there's a cost of doing nothing.

I don't want to pay that cost.

I'm gonna pay this other cost because I know you'll provide to doing nothing.

I don't want to pay that cost.

I'm going to pay this other cost because I know you'll provide.

Are y'all getting this now?

So you got to take your eyes off the interest rate.

Take your eyes.

I'm not saying just go out and buy something, I'm just saying follow the Holy Ghost, take your eyes off the circumstances.

We walk by faith, not by, seems like.

Let's look at Romans, chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Boy, I love these verses.

Everybody say consider, not See.

There's a considering.

And then there's a consider, not In Romans 4.16,.

Therefore, it is a faith that it might be, by grace, to the end.

The promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that which also is a faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations.

Now, when did God speak that to Abraham?

He spoke that he said I have made.

Now he said I'm gonna.

When he was younger.

That he said I have made.

Now he said I'm gonna.

When he was younger.

But when he said I have made the past tense a father of many nations, abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90.

He would already told him that is, that his family was not going to be Ishmael the son of Hagar.

His family is not going to be the son of some bondwoman, it's going to be of his own house.

I have made thee a father of many nations before him, whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

So what did God do when he said that?

He called the thing that be not as though it were.

When God said I have made thee a father of many nations.

Was Abraham a father of many nations?

Well, no, he wasn't not yet.

But God called the thing that be, not as though it were.

And so that's exactly what Abraham did.

Abraham did the same thing God did.

He began to to see and, and he was able to watch over his profession of faith.

He spoke by faith.

Who against hope?

This is Abraham who, against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken.

So shall thy seed be.

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, which is now dead.

In other words, he does not have the ability to father children.

Okay, he's not able.

I out nor say his own body now did when he was about a hundred years old.

Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.

Well, sarah's womb was dead because she's 90, she's passed a child childbearing age, but really her womb was dead all of her life.

She wasn't able to have children in her younger days.

So she's double dead.

That's what I like to say.

She's double dead.

I mean, how dead can you get?

You can't get deader than double dead.

He didn't consider it, he didn't consider double dead, he didn't consider it, he didn't consider himself, he didn't consider his body.

He considered one thing, the word, and he spoke it every time he introduced himself.

Abraham means father of many nations.

Hello, I'd like to introduce myself.

I'm father of many nations and this is my wife, princess, mother of all living.

Introduce myself I'm father of many nations and this is my wife, princess, mother of all living.

Old man, what are you talking about?

I mean, you know, faith is kind of.

It puts you in a different place.

I said, faith puts you in a different place.

So Abraham considered not his body now dead, nor Sarah's womb now dead, and he admitted it.

He knew it was so, but he didn't focus on that.

He focused on, he gave his attention to God's promise, verse 21, he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform.

See, promise is future, but performance, I'm telling you, there's always a performance to God's promises.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she's going to mother a child, how can that be?

I don't know a man, I'm not married.

I don't know a child.

How can that be?

I don't know a man, I'm not married, I don't know a man, how can it be that I'm going to have a child?

He said the Holy Ghost is going to come upon you.

The power of the Most High shall overshadow you, and that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.

And she said let it be unto me according to thy word.

See, it was a promise that God performed, but she had to believe it.

Are y'all getting a hold of some things that you've got to consider, or not?

She considered not the fact that she didn't know a man.

She considered not the fact she wasn't married.

She's going to leave that all up to God.

It's kind of a complication, Wouldn't that be a complication?

Oh, I'm telling you, god has given us this faith.

He's given us the ingredients of a supernatural life, and I want to encourage you about consider Jesus right now.

We've got to get our eyes off of the circumstances.

I know they're terrible.

I've never seen them like this.

I've never seen the world on fire like this.

I've never seen such craziness and division.

Every place you see, every place you look.

And I'm telling you, jesus is coming soon.

We're living in the last days.

Trouble is all around, but let's consider Jesus.

He's putting us over.

Come on, lift your hands in your seat.