Adjusting Your Receiver 2

with all the church here at Glorious Way Church in Houston, texas.

We're going to wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

I tell you, the devil gnashes his teeth every time we get together.

I love making the devil mad, but even more I love to make Jesus glad.

So let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing me to live in these last days.

I'm living in the greatest country.

Oh, there's a lot wrong with it, but there's a whole lot more right with it.

We are a Christian nation.

We're not going to let the rest of the world forget it.

We have a voice and we're lifting that voice today in Jesus' name, to proclaim the good news that Jesus died on the cross for all men, but he rose from the dead so that all can be saved.

We have the good news with us today in Jesus' name.

Amen, you can be seated.

Praise God.

Man, what a time we're living in, my goodness.

Let's look in our Bibles, please.

I'm doing a series Actually it's two parts, and this is the second part this morning, on adjusting your receiver, let's turn in our Bibles to Mark 11, 24, and also Song of Solomon, 2.

And we're going to read our cornerstone scriptures this morning, and of course, mark 11, Jesus is speaking and teaching the disciples at a perfect time, a teachable moment for them.

They wondered about how in the world the fig tree was dried up from the roots and Jesus said have the faith of God, have the God kind of faith.

And then he told them what it was.

And verse 24, he says what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.

When do you believe you receive them?

When you have them?

No, when you pray.

So there's a difference between receiving and having, and that's the seed time.

It's every.

The whole kingdom operates on the seed principle and so we don't have instant potatoes, instant pudding, I mean it's you know.

You know, god does some instant miracles, there's no question about it.

But most of the time when our faith is involved, there's a seed time and there's a time of planting and there's a time of rejoicing and thanking God, as if we already have it.

And then it shows up.

That's what Jesus is saying.

And then in the Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 15, we won't read the whole thing, we'll just tell you what it says, and essentially it says the little foxes spoil the vine.

Song of Solomon 2:15

Little foxes spoil the vine.

It's a principle.

So we've been talking about adjusting our receivers.

This is the year I want to remind you, the year of momentum.

God is establishing momentum.

He gave us that at the beginning of the year.

I want to remind you, I have to keep you in remembrance of what he said.

What is momentum?

It's a force that's gathering.

It's gathering steam.

We see the accelerant.

He said everything old is new again.

He said Everything receding is advancing again and the kingdom of God mightily grows and prevails.

Is that working in your life?

See?

Because if it's not, if you're not experiencing his momentum, if you're not experiencing increase, if you're not experiencing victory, then you may need to adjust your receiver.

My job is to keep you in the place of where you can receive what Jesus' blood, the currency of our redemption, is the blood of Christ.

If it was shed for you, you must be worth something.

There's been no substance known to man as valuable, as precious as the blood of Jesus Christ.

There's only so much of it, only so much of it, and so it's rare, it's costly, it's precious, and God bought us with it.

And where is it?

He took his blood and it's in the mercy seat in heaven.

It's there to remind God.

I mean, jesus reminds God.

Hey, they're my covenant people and I paid for them.

So when you know that, see, it can make a big difference sometimes when we forget and we all do forget at times.

And so that's the reason we're working on our receivers.

Your receiver is your spirit.

And so we've discovered last week that sometimes just small adjustments can make huge differences in the benefit.

You know, just a little adjustment spurred by the Holy Ghost, when you've investigated, when you've sought Him, when you've prayed, when you've read your Bible and you're seeking Him, just a little adjustment can move you right into the place, right under the spout, where the glory pours out.

You might have been over here and here's the glory pouring out right here.

Well, you've got to get over here, you've got to move, you've got to make what An adjustment.

Sometimes it's just a little one, just a little adjustment.

So you know, god's blessings don't just fall on us, just wherever we are.

We've got to get to where they are.

We've got to get to where he wants us he.

You know, unless Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it.

I came across 1 John 3, 1 the other day in the Passion Translation, how God has lavished his love upon us.

I like that word lavish.

He wants to lavish his blessings.

Why?

Because they've been bought with a price.

Your health, your finances, your marriage, your career, your business, everything about your life has been prepared, has been bought.

He's lavished his love on you.

It was dark before Jesus came, and when, when he came, he turned on the light and he turned on the power.

And so if there's ever anything that's not working, it's not ever on his side, it's on our side.

So it's on our side.

You know, you got to get with that.

You got to.

You got to get with that program.

You got to realize it's never God's fault, it's on our side.

We've got to discover where the adjustment is, and so we talked a lot about that last week.

I don't have time to go over everything we said last week.

We had a lot of fun last week.

We talked about, you know, in the 50s and the old antenna.

You know, you remember my old antenna in Refurio, texas, where you'd turn the thing on the set top and it'd go click, click, click.

See, sometimes we just got to turn the dial on our receiver and get lined up with what God is saying and what God is doing.

Now I'm just thinking about this as a year of momentum.

God's got huge things.

Just look at the last week, seven days of last week.

Last Sunday we talked about all the signs that God was granting.

We had the lightning strike on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, right on the torch.

I saw the photograph of that and then, right across the water, over there in the United Nations building, they're cursing Israel.

They're doing everything they can.

Israel is just under attack by these animals, and that's what I call them, because they're not human.

Really, they're demonized and really there's not much difference between the innocent civilians.

Really, it came out this past week that some of these civilians sold, they went and captured some Jewish people and sold them to Hamas for money.

So they're not all, they're not.

Listen, you know they're not innocent.

I said they're not innocent.

And all this concern about those poor civilians well, who's stealing the aid?

Well, the Hamas steals the aid and sells it to the poor civilians and they put up with it.

I mean, you know, really I don't have, I'm sorry, I'm just all out of compassion for the poor Palestinians.

Well, they're Arabs really, they're're not Palestinians is a lie already.

That's a lie.

They got given Gaza 2005,.

Ariel Sharon abandoned Gaza, drove the Jewish people that owned all of that land, drove them out by the Israeli soldiers at gunpoint.

They never were given any retribution.

You know talk about, you know restoration and all that reparations.

They weren't given any reparations.

Why am I saying this?

Because this is the judgment of the nations and at the same time, god glory, is moving across the earth.

So one week ago, so then we had the, you know, the eclipse and everybody was big on the eclipse and people, you know all that had the earthquake and right across there, you know, on the fifth and then the eclipse.

So God is getting everybody ready.

What happens this Sunday?

I mean we've got a first time in history that Iran attacks Israel on their own land.

They use proxies before, hezbollah and all these other people are proxies.

Now they just went ahead and directly did it and let me just say Iran failed miserably.

They showed how totally feckless they really are, weak they are.

It wouldn't take but a flick to knock that regime out of there.

Is it going to happen?

Well, I don't know.

I doubt it from what I'm hearing Biden say.

Biden told Netanyahu take the win.

You didn't suffer any losses, just take the win.

Don't.

Don't answer that, don't answer it.

Well, who in the world would not answer an attack of 200 missiles and drones launched full scale at you?

The only reason they failed is because of the excellence of the defense.

Oh yeah, you know, america shot down a few, very few.

It was mostly Israeli assets that took all of it out.

They didn't really make a.

They didn't make any big dent in it.

Israel was fine without America doing anything.

And then, of course, jordan's getting all kind of credit.

Well, okay, great.

The only thing about it is I mean, sometimes those Arabs, they fight among each other.

So Iran is hated by a lot of the Arab world.

That's the Sunnis and the Shias.

The Sunnis and the Shias had a 30-year war and millions of people died.

You never hear about that.

You hear about Vietnam.

You hear about the Gulf War.

You hear about Iraq war and all of that.

You hear about Afghanistan.

You don't hear about the Shias and the Shiites.

Iraq and Iran war.

Millions of people died, millions.

You don't hear about that war, but it was fought and it was fought between Muslims.

So they, they, you know, they got a lot of hatred in their religion.

It wouldn't take anything to knock the Iranians off of the pedestal and blow up their nuclear facility and take that off the table.

That's what really needs to happen today.

They need to go and bomb the factory where they're making that bomb, where they're doing all that work.

They know where it is.

Take it out.

They've proven they can't defend themselves, they can't mount an offense, they don't have anything sophisticated.

I keep hearing these people say well, that was just a test.

No, that was their best shot and they failed.

They failed.

Are you all with me now?

What am I saying all this for?

Because this is the time that we're living in.

We're living in the last days.

I mean, this thing's about to wind up and guess what?

The church is going to be on top the church is going to be on top the church.

It's the church folks.

So let's get ready to receive all that God's paid for by the precious blood of Christ.

So let's look at Hebrews 11 today.

I want to get into the second one.

We talked about three things.

You can do last week to adjust your receiver and need to walk in love, don't we Next verse when you stand, pray and forgive.

Verse 25, 26.

So we need to walk in love.

Make sure you're walking in love, and then you make your adjustment.

Most of the time when things aren't moving, it's usually because you're not really walking in love.

All right, and then we won't go through the other two.

But anyway, let's go to Hebrews 11, 6.

Very familiar scripture, for without faith it is impossible to please him.

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is number one.

Everybody said well, I got that box checked.

We do believe he is, don't we?

You come to God.

You have to believe he is and that he is a rewarder of those who occasionally seek him lackadaisically.

Seek him seldom.

Seek him diligently.

Make adjustments, see, when you seek him, that's what you're seeking.

You're seeking to find out what can I do different?

Because if you're seeking him for healing, well, healing has already been given.

You See, I mean, why would you seek him for healing when healing has already been bought and paid for?

See, a lot of people.

They spend a lot of time, they burn a lot of energy asking God for things that Jesus' blood already bought and paid for, and then you're just wasting time when you're the one that hasn't received it yet.

You're the one that needs to make the adjustment.

You're wasting time, and sometimes you know when you're dealing with certain diseases you really don't have time to waste because the clock is ticking on on this thing that's growing inside your body, that's trying to kill you.

He's not taking a vacation while you try to figure out what you should do about it.

While you try to figure out what you should do about it, wouldn't it be a lot wiser, then, to let's just go into this thing, knowing what belongs to us, and then, if it hadn't showed up now we're going to find out, we're going to seek, we're going to diligently seek him.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God.

You can't please him any other way.

And then, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, 5, 7, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 5, 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight.

We walk by faith not by seems like, looks like, feels like.

By seems like, looks like, feels like, sounds like.

No, we don't walk that way.

We walk by faith, not by senses.

The word walk means continue.

You see, the faith walk is a faith life.

It is the way we live.

It's a lifestyle.

It's not something we pull out of our bag when we're desperate and all of a sudden we do a cram course on faith and we start trying to build our faith for this attack that's coming, you know, nine times out of ten.

If that's what you're doing, it's like cramming for the final.

You know it doesn't work really.

You know it doesn't work really.

If you haven't kept up with your studies all semester and you've got this big old test, you know, and you haven't cracked a book, you haven't done any of the homework, you haven't done any study, and then you're going to wait till the day of and you're going to think, ok, I'm going to get up extra early and I'm going to cram for this final, you're probably going to get an F, you're going to flunk.

No, it's a lifestyle.

Faith is designed for us to live this way all the time.

That's the only way we please God.

Do we want to just please God a little bit of the time?

And the rest of the time we want to please ourselves.

The rest of the time, we want to offend God.

Because I want to tell you the opposite is true.

When we don't walk by faith, it makes God mad.

Read Israel's account of what happened.

God got mad.

Over and over again he got angry.

Unbelief always angers God.

I don't care if you're blood-bought, born again, quote-unquote spirit-filled.

When you walk with unbelief, you make God mad.

Now he doesn't act on his anger.

But how many of you want to irritate him?

I'd rather please him, wouldn't you rather please him?

Yeah, that's what we want to do.

We want to aggravate him, amen.

So faith is based on knowledge, you know.

Or we could say faith is based on knowledge, you know, or we could say faith is based on revelation.

Faith is based on revelation, you know.

Jesus told Peter Peter.

He said you know, who do men say that I am?

Well, some say you're that prophet, some say you're Elijah Well, who do you say I am?

You know, who do you say I am?

And Peter man, right out of the first rattle, out of the box, he said I art the Christ, the son of the living God.

Blessed art thou, simon Bar-Jonah.

Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my father, which is in heaven, amen.

Now your name is is Peter, which means little stone.

But upon this great rock of revelation I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against me.

It's not talking about the Pope.

Okay, the Catholics cheats that whole thing like.

That's the Pope.

No, peter's not the Pope, peter's a little stone.

He used him as an illustration.

He renamed him.

Actually, his name is Simon and he renamed him at that time called him little stone in order to illustrate the great revelation, the rock of revelation, knowledge that the church is built on.

It's built on revelation and that's why I preach over and over certain things.

I don't just preach them one time in 30 years, I preach them over.

I don't know how many times I've preached out of these verses over and over.

Why?

Because we need a refresher, we need to be reminded on a constant basis, because we're under pressure all the time to give it up.

So, faith in the blood, faith in what the blood has done, faith in what the blood is doing right now.

It's doing something right now and what it's going to do, it's going to continue to do that rebel.

When you get a hold of that, well, it doesn't just fall on top of you, you have to seek it out through prayer and through reading your Bible.

That's how it comes.

Come into church.

Brother Osteen used to say you know, one message can change one man or one woman and one man or woman can change a nation.

I mean, that's how much confidence I have in what I'm preaching.

This is life changing doctrine, he told Titus.

You know, hold fast to the doctrine, the sound teaching.

Don't listen to all this garbage.

There's a lot of garbage out there, folks, but since COVID, I mean, you've got every kind of weirdness going on out there that's masquerading for church.

Churches that used to be pretty good have just degenerated into all kinds of weirdness.

Man, you've got to stick with sound doctrine.

I'm preaching what Paul preached.

I'm preaching what Jesus preached.

Amen, are you with me now?

He told Timothy.

Paul told Timothy fight the good fight of faith.

Ours is a good fight of faith.

Why?

Because we win if we fight it in the arena of faith.

You know there's good fight of faith.

Ours is a good fight of faith.

Why?

Because we win if we fight it in the arena of faith.

You know there's all kinds of arenas.

You ever watch the movie.

You know Gladiator.

I mean he fought in an arena.

I mean, if he'd have fought out in the street, well, who cares about that?

He doesn't get paid anything for fighting in the street.

But you know what he got paid, of course.

When I say paid, he was allowed to live.

That was his wages.

Allowed to live.

So he learned, you know, he was a listen, he was already a trained killer, so he was a leg up on all those other poor schleps that came up against him.

Right, but where did he fight?

He fought in the arena, and there is an arena of faith that we fight in, where we win every time.

But when we get over here in the flesh and we fight in the flesh, we're going to lose every time.

My job is to keep you in the arena of faith Amen.

Years ago I had this little illustration that God gave me years and years ago when, growing up and I grew up, you know, I told this last week Galena Park, texas, little independent town suburb of Houston, on the ship channel, and we lived on a corner on 2nd Street and the other corner across the street from us toward Clinton Drive, our neighbor across the street, they had two boys.

Charles was my brother's age, bobby.

I called him back then Bobby became Bob, but when we were young he was Bobby and my brother was eight years older, so I was about four, he's 12.

And they had two boys, charles and Glenn, and I couldn't say Glenn.

I don't know whether Gigi came from them or me, but anyway that was his name, gigi, that's, you know, gigi.

So Gigi and Charles live across the street.

Gigi's my, you know, one of my friends, and so we his parents had a big old pile of dirt delivered to their front yard.

Well, man, that's now.

We didn't have video games.

We didn't have, you know, we had dirt, we had big piles of dirt to play in, and you know we didn't have play dates.

No, play dates, we just played all the time.

We played outside all the time.

I didn't play inside.

Why?

Because it's hot inside in the summertime.

No, air conditioning, you sweat, no, you go outside, and besides that, you want to get dirty, you want to get, you want to get, anyway, a big old pile of dirt.

We just had the biggest time on that pile of dirt and they started spreading it, you know, and it got lower and lower.

And so one day, gigi's out there with his truck and he's playing, and so I get my trucks and I go across the street and we made tunnels and, man, we were playing an hour and a half, two hours, I don't know how long, a long time, until Charles comes out the front door and he decides to come over there and messes everything up.

He stepped right in the middle of our tunnels and stepped on top of my cars and trucks and messed everything up.

I mean, I looked at him, you know, and I didn't say anything.

I just kind of glared at him and he glared back and I was kind of afraid.

He's a lot bigger than me, he's eight years old, he's 12 and I'm four.

So I pick up my stuff and go back across the street.

I get about halfway across the street to my house and I get hit in the back of the head with a dirt cloth.

I thought it was a rock, it was so hard.

Man, ah, boy, I start screaming and hollering.

I went in the front door, mother's freaking out, what's wrong, what's wrong?

Bobby's over there, what's going on?

Charles hit me in the head with a rock.

I thought it was a rock and before anything happened, my brother was out the front door walking across the street.

Bobby, bobby, don't you, don't you do anything, you know?

Mother's freaking out even more.

And so I I cleared up.

Man, I want to watch this.

I knelt on the back of the sofa.

The sofa is right against the front.

You know the doors to the side.

You can't see anything out the door, so screen door.

But I couldn't see out that.

So I went through the front window and I'm looking at the whole picture and he's walking right up the sidewalk.

Now Charles is not the brightest light on the tree.

I mean, his elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor.

Charles is sitting on his front porch after he threw a rock and hit his four-year-old neighbor in the head.

He's sitting on the front porch with his knee up and he's got his hand on his knee and his chin in his hand and he leaves his right cheek open.

I guess it's the other side, this side.

He leaves his right cheek open, my brother's's the other side, this side.

He leaves his right cheek open, my, my brother's right-handed.

He walked right up to Charles.

Charles never moved, he never got up, he just sat, sat, sat there and my brother just slapped him open palm right across the face.

Wow, and I went.

Wow, and Charles started.

He started screaming and hollering and then her mother started screaming and hollering and then her mother started screaming and hollering.

We had domestic violence there on 2nd Street.

It was quite a controversy.

But you know, kids, we don't think about that.

Three days later I see Gigi out there playing in the dirt.

So I get my stuff and I go out there and play in the dirt with him.

I never thought of thinking that.

I didn't even remember what happened three days before.

I'm out there playing, just having the time man, just like we did.

We rebuilt our tunnels and we had everything going on.

And Charles comes back out, he comes walking down there and this time I look at him and then I remembered oh my goodness, my brother just slapped him across.

I'm not sure if I could still see the handprint on the right side, I'm not sure.

I can't say that I can, but anyway.

But I didn't really cower, I just looked at him like I ain't moving and he looked at me like he was going to do something.

And then the light bulb turned on and he turned around and went inside.

And I'm telling you, our elder brother, jesus, did a whole lot more than slap the devil.

I'm telling you, he defeated him.

He spoiled principalities and powers and made an example of them, led them a train of vanquished foes.

Oh, I'm telling you, right now we've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

When we fight in the arena of faith, we win every time, not about defeating him.

It's about showing everyone that he is defeated.

It's about demonstrating that he's defeated.

It's about demonstrating that he's defeated.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

You know in Acts 19, those sons of Sceva, they were Jewish exorcists and they tried to exorcise, tried to cast devils out.

They said, in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches, come out.

And the young man said well, you know Jesus, I know.

And Paul, I know.

But who are you?

And they jumped on that One man jumped on seven boys and stripped them naked and beat them up and sent them on their way.

No, but we've got the name of Jesus, we've got the exclusive right to use that name, amen.

But we have to be continually refreshed in our redemption.

So we need to adjust our receiver.

So I've got two more things to share with you today about that.

Number one, about adjusting your receiver.

And remember, your receiver is your spirit, everything is in your spirit, everything that you get on this earth.

You know, the scene draws its origin from the unseen.

See, all these messages kind of connect up, if you'll go back a couple of weeks, what we were talking about building your world with words, and then, before that, what we'll be talking about the power of prayer.

See all of these messages dovetail and they fit together.

If you'll get them all working together in your life, you're going to see victory, you're going to see health, you're going to see finances, you're going to see breakthrough, you're going to have momentum.

So adjust your hearing, adjust your hearing.

Adjust your hearing.

Hebrews 11, 6.

Without faith, it's impossible to please Him.

But you know, you've got to adjust.

You've got to make constant adjustments.

You've got to believe that he is.

You have to believe.

If you come into God, you must believe that he is.

We've got that wired.

You've got to believe that he is.

You have to believe.

If you come into God, you must believe that he is.

We've got that wired.

You've got to believe he's a rewarder.

He's a rewarder of those who what diligently seek Him.

He gets back to diligence.

You're making constant adjustments.

You have to feed your faith every day.

You have to stay in contact with Him every day.

You've got to speak your faith every day.

You have to stay in contact with him every day.

You've got to speak the word every day.

You've got to stay in that zone.

It's not something you just do occasionally, it's diligently, diligently.

Romans 10, 17,.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word.

Hearing means understanding it.

Again.

Revelation how do you get revelation Hanging out with him?

You hang out with him until you just until it just you have a knowing all of a sudden.

I mean it's just amazing.

Romans 12 too.

You know, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing or the refreshing of your mind that you may prove.

What is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

I mean, if you aren't refreshed on a daily basis, you are going to leave something on the table.

I just think about what it takes to fly an airplane.

I've flown small planes for many years.

My partner had a plane and a couple of times JD took me up in his plane.

I flew with JD and we, we flew and, uh, we were flying to San Antonio, or no, yeah, well, someplace we were flying and he, he let me fly it a while and I was just.

I mean, you know, it'd been a while since I'd flown.

I'd never flown a twin.

His was a twin engine plane and I, I was impressed by the fact that you had to mess with it all the time.

You don't just put it on autopilot and let it go.

I mean, it's got autopilot but he would use it briefly.

But if you're going to fly the plane, you are going to make adjustments constantly.

That thing is wanting to either climb or descend.

I mean, just like that you can be 300, 400, 500 feet different than what your altitude is.

You know the control tower is telling you what altitude to fly.

The flight director on your trip is telling you to have a certain heading at a certain altitude.

It's important for you to stay on that heading and that altitude.

Why?

Because there's other traffic and you could possibly have a mid-air collision and most of the time, you know, the pilots that have crashes and die in a plane crash are people who are not very tuned in to flying the plane.

You have to fly it.

That means you make lots of adjustments.

I mean you're looking at the horizon.

If you don't look at the horizon and you don't look at your instruments, all of a sudden your plane is like this and now it's turning off course.

Or you know it's headed down or it's headed up, or you get the nose high.

Now you're losing airspeed.

I mean, you know it's a constant thing.

Well, you know your life's a lot more complicated than that and that's why you need constant adjustment.

And then there's the area of growth.

You know we all grow.

We talked about last week.

My parents wouldn't let me even have a moped, much less a car, until I graduated high school.

I wanted a car, so bad I could drive mother's car anytime I wanted to.

If I needed a car, I'd just ask for it and they'd give it to me.

I mean, you know I made good grades.

I, you know I made good grades.

I behaved myself generally.

As far as they knew, they didn't really know everything.

If they'd have seen how I really behaved, they probably wouldn't have given me the car.

But what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

And now they can't hear me now.

So hopefully they're not eavesdropping.

But do you let a 10-year-old drive?

Why?

Because they don't know enough.

And so, god, you know, as we're growing, our spirits are growing.

We're able to bear more, we're able to receive more.

When your spirit gets bigger and more mature, god can trust you with more than you had before, and more mature, god can trust you with more than you had before.

I think about John 16, 12,.

Jesus told the disciples he said I have so many things to share with you, but you cannot bear them now.

Can't bear them now why?

Because they weren't qualified.

When did they finally find some of that stuff out?

When Jesus revealed it to Paul.

When Paul went to heaven.

I, like what one theologian said about Jesus, paul preached what Jesus took to heaven unuttered.

You know the 11 disciples.

They knew a few things.

Jesus had 40 days, you know, after the resurrection, to tell them about the kingdom of God.

But I mean, you know they didn't have the whole picture.

They still hung around Judaism, they were still struggling with keeping the law.

You know, they were real zealous about just reaching out to Jewish people and getting Jews saved.

They kind of let the Gentiles slide until Paul came along and Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.

And then, of course, you know, peter had to have a visitation, you know, on that rooftop and saw the sheet with all the unclean animals being let down and rise Peter, kill and eat.

Oh, I've never killed anything unclean.

Don't call what I've cleansed unclean.

So he had to have a visitation when he went to Cornelius's house, who was a Gentile, and so that the church wouldn't fracture.

There were things the church had to grow into.

Well, it's been 2000 years.

Isn't it time the church grow up into something more?

Amen, I mean, we need to grow up so that we can receive everything we need.

Amen For this end time harvest.

I think about 1 Corinthians 3.2.

Paul told the Corinthians.

He said you know, I've had to feed you with milk and not with meat Because you can't bear the meat or you're not yet carnal, your body ruled and you choke on the meat.

I try to tell you your obligations, I try to tell you the responsibilities and you just go, just give me the blessing scriptures.

That's all I want.

The blessing scripture.

Well, we are blessed and I want to spend time letting you know how blessed you are, but then there's conditions.

You have to grow up, amen.

So are we walking by?

Seems like, see, that's body rule.

Are you mentally agreeing with the word, but you really don't have it down in your heart?

Well then, that means you haven't spent enough time in prayer and the word.

And John 8, 31 to 32, jesus said if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Now we misquote that all the time.

I hear people misquote it oh Jesus, set me free.

Well, set me free means you were caught in a trap.

You're walking down the road and caught in a trap and Jesus has set you free.

Well, that's not God's best.

God's best is to keep you free, make you free.

If you continue in my word, there won't be any setting free.

Why?

Because you already got set free when you got saved and now you're continuing.

You're moving down a pathway.

The Word continues.

See there, that Word continues.

Or walk.

See.

This faith thing is not just for emergencies.

This is how we live Every day, every day, every day.

Praise God, all right.

Faith cometh by hearing and not by having heard.

I mean, that's the other thing.

I see a lot.

That's why I preach the same thing over and over again, because people heard it and they quit doing it.

So I have to preach it again.

And sometimes they hear it for the first and they seem like, well, I never heard that before.

Well, many times it's because they let it slip.

Sometimes it's because they've grown up a little bit more.

Now they can take more of it.

They can take more of it and get more results.

I call it continuing educations.

You know, some of you in here you're professionals and you have certifications that you have to have to be in the profession you're in.

I think about IT people, I think about accounting, I think about different engineering.

And if you're certified in a certain area, well then you know you have to have continuing education.

And as technology grows, as things happen, I think about a CPA.

I mean the IRS comes out with about a thousand pages of new regulations every year.

I mean, if IRS comes out with about a thousand pages of new regulations every year, I mean if you're a CPA, you're doing, you're working all the time just trying to keep up with the goofballs at the IRS.

You see all those people standing in line.

They close the office here locally.

All these people stand in line for next week tax day.

They don't know how to fill out their taxes.

So the IRS says, oh, we'll help you, just come on to our office, we'll be glad we've got a staff of people.

Somebody got fighting in the line and they shut the whole office down and there were five or 600 people outside.

I mean these people are stupid.

They are the most feckless people I've ever seen.

They've hired the bottom of the barrel to occupy all of these places and they don't know how to run an IRS office successfully.

Whatever happened to the sheriff who come out and arrest the two people that are fighting and keep the office open?

Instead, you've got 600 people that don't know what to do now and they're all mad.

I say fire the whole bunch of them, because they're not any smarter than that.

Oh, we're going to open it next week.

Well, whoop-dee-doo, next week is tax day.

Can you imagine what it's going to look like on Tuesday?

All these people trying to fill out their taxes?

Anyway, continuing education, that was where I'm at, see.

No, we've got to continue our education in the Word of God, not our head, but our heart.

And so you upgrade your certification so that you can and if you ignore that?

Well, you know, I did that.

Five years ago.

I got my certificate.

Well, you know what they might pass you over promotion.

You don't know enough now to be really certified in that specialty that you have.

You know one thing that God gave me a few years ago.

He said hold fast your profession of faith without wavering, for God is faithful.

Who promised we need to be a little bit more professional about our confession.

We need to be a little bit more professional about our faith.

We need to be paying as much attention as we do in the work world with our faith life and making sure that we stay on top of reading our Bible and praying and hanging out with God so that we can, you know, have everything that we, that Jesus' blood bought and paid for.

That's the whole point of this whole message.

So I think about Mark 9, 23,.

Jesus encountered this man who had a son, who was basically had epilepsy, was be thrown in the fire and thrown in the water.

He said I brought him to your disciples but they could not cure him.

And he said well, how long has it been this way?

Oh, since a child.

Long has it been this way?

All since a child?

He said it's just terrible, jesus, if you can do anything you just see the angst, the desperation in this father's story If you can, just, jesus, if you can do anything, your disciples couldn't do anything.

But if you could do anything, but if you could do anything, if you could do anything for my boy, have mercy, have mercy on us.

And Jesus said well, it's really not.

You know, in one translation he says it's really not a matter of whether I can do anything, but rather it's whether you can believe, because if you can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Oh, come on, lift your hand right now.

That's why I spend time, that's why I spend time feeding your faith, that's why I spend time dissecting this word, because teaching is the remedy for unbelief.

It's the remedy for ignorance.

Ignorance or ignorance, either one.

That's the same as unbelief.

Ignorance is unbelief when you don't know it or when you ignore it.

What?

That's the same as unbelief?

Ignorance is unbelief when you don't know it or when you ignore it.

What is that?

That's unbelief and unbelief.

What Angers God?

Faith?

What Pleases God?

Oh, come on, lift your hands right now.

You're continuing education.

If you can believe, all things are possible.

All things leave.

All things are possible, all things.

Nothing shall be impossible to him that believeth.

So you have to adjust your hearing, you have to adjust it, all right.

And then the second one, the last one in this series adjust your actions.

A lack of acting on the word.

The simple definition of faith is acting on the word, or I like this one, acting like the Bible is true.

That's my favorite.

That's the clearest definition, I think, of faith People have.

They get so tangled up with faith and what it is.

It's just simply acting like the Bible, is true.

It's just not that complicated.

Faith is acting like the Bible is true.

It's just not that complicated.

Faith is acting like the Bible, is true.

And James 2.20 in the Weymouth translation.

He says faith without corresponding action is dead.

Being alone as the body without the spirit is dead.

Even so, faith without corresponding action is dead also.

So some people have faith, but it's dead.

Why?

Because they don't act on it.

So it's turned into a mental agreement.

It's turned in yeah, they believe that Jesus is Lord, they believe that Jesus can do anything, they believe that Jesus is the healer in their mind, but they don't act it.

They don't act like it when they get sick.

They're sick, sick as a dog, and talk about it.

No, when you're sick, get up, do some shouting.

The other morning, gladys and I had an appointment and we got up and it was time to go to the appointment and she got up and she got real dizzy.

Oh, I'm not going to be able to go.

I said no, we're going, we're going, we're not, we're not giving into this.

We're going to submit ourselves, therefore, to God.

Resist the devil, and he must flee.

You know she'd been, she's been attacked, with it in her, in her balance, and she'd been attacked.

Sometimes we, you know, we just can't.

We're going to keep resisting it.

We're going to keep.

Same thing happened this morning, but you know we're here.

What do you do?

Well, you just don't give in to it.

I have to help her, of course, if you're dizzy.

Have you ever tried to walk when you're dizzy?

It's not very, it's not safe.

Number one.

Number two you can't drive when you're dizzy.

But you know, in every case, when we just get to moving and get started and we keep speaking, you know it just goes away.

Are y'all with me?

Now?

You have to adjust your actions.

Faith is acting like the Bible is true.

You know, peter acted on Jesus' word.

They were out there, on that stormy sea of Galilee Jesus is walking on the water and Peter, they were all affrighted, they're all afraid.

Oh, it's the Spirit.

No, it's Jesus.

He said it is, I Be not afraid, it's me.

What do you think?

It's me, it is, I Be not afraid.

And Peter said Lord, if it be thou.

He just said it was.

If it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water.

And Jesus just simply said come.

He didn't say Peter come, he just said come.

So come could have been everybody in the boat.

Come could have been the other boat on behind him over there.

It could have been everybody in the boat.

Come could have been the other boat behind him over there.

It could have been any place where his voice carried.

I mean, come meant come, and they could have all went over the side and walked on the water.

But only Peter did.

He acted on Jesus' word, and we forget all the time.

But he did walk on the water Until he feared.

He started to sing.

He started to sing, he started to and he panicked.

And Jesus caught him and walked him back to the boat and said O ye of little faith.

See, little faith walked on the water.

Amen, let's not forget he walked on the water.

So Peter acted on the word.

That's all we do.

I mean Paul and Silas.

They waited to get direction from the Holy ghost about where to preach you were.

They were forbidden by the Holy ghost to preach the word in Asia minor, you know.

And uh, they wanted to go to Bithynia and the spirit suffered them not.

And then Paul had a dream about the Macedonian men.

Come over here and help us.

And so they went that direction.

They went to Macedonia where they were beaten with many stripes and thrown into the inner prison and their feet put in stocks.

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises and all the prisoners heard them.

See, they didn't, they didn't have a pity party.

They didn't say, well, golly, I guess I missed God.

No, they knew they were in the will of God and they knew all this whole mess had to, had to dissolve they.

They knew they weren't there to just to be put to death.

They knew they weren't there to to be locked up in prison.

They just prayed about it and they sang praises as if, see, they believe they receive.

And then they thank God.

And the earthquake came.

And God invaded the earthquake and broke them out of jail.

The jailer got saved.

He was going to kill himself.

And the jailer got saved.

His old family got saved.

That was the Macedonian man that they were sent there to help.

He became the pastor.

Some people, some, some traditions say he became the pastor of that church.

I don't know if that's true or not, but it sounds good.

That's how I would write the script if I was writing the script of the movie Praise God.

So rejoicing is the bridge between receiving and having.

After you believe you receive, that's when you start rejoicing.

That's when you start praising God every day, that it's on the way.

Glory to God.

So if you truly believe you receive, then you rejoice like you already have, and you resist sickness.

You get up and shout and move, don't just give in to it.

If you have to go to the doctor to get symptoms under control, well, don't feel condemned, but go in faith.

And nowadays you have to pray a little while to make sure which doctor to go to, because you go to some of these sawbones and that's what they are.

I mean, you know, I don't know what to think about a place like Texas Children's Hospital that believe in poisoning little children and giving them this transition therapy and all this.

I mean, I just, I just can.

I'm just so offended by them.

I don't, I want to pray.

They go broke.

What kind of a doctor does that?

What kind of a doctor performs that kind of surgery on a child?

They should be removed.

There is no justification.

I don't care.

There's no science.

That's not science.

There's not one single study that says it's okay, not one.

So our, you know since COVID.

You know it's been coming a long time, but since COVID.

So when you go to the doctor, I just urge you, spend some time praying before you go.

Make sure that God is behind your going.

There's nothing wrong with going to the doctor.

I'm not saying that.

Brother Travis went to the doctor.

He's here today, glory to God.

He didn't go immediately, he waited.

You know they wanted to replace his valve and his heart, you know as a procedure, but he had peace about doing it.

Now he's back.

I've been to the doctor.

I have open heart surgery.

I mean, I'm not against doctors, but I'm saying though, in today's day, we need to pray and get God's plan.

Are you all with me now Talking about adjusting your receiver?

I mean, if you're struck in poverty, listen, make a commitment that you're going to tithe.

Well, I don't have any income to tithe, yeah, but make a commitment to tithe.

When I read about Jacob, jacob was broke he's running from Esau and he made a commitment to God.

He said listen, god, you get me back to my house one of these days I'm going to Laban's house.

You get me back here.

Surely the 10th will be.

I will give the 10th unto thee.

The 10th, not a 10th.

The 10th is the first 10th.

So tithing is not a matter of ability, it's a matter of obedience, that's all it is.

It's not a matter of ability when somebody says, well, I can't tithe.

Well, you can.

You just choose not to Because it's the first.

It's right off the top, before house payment, before taxes, before anything, before credit cards.

Tithe.

Well, I don't have any money.

Well, if you have no income, then your tithe is zero, but you're still a tither.

Commit to being a tither.

If I was broke, I would commit to being a tither.

And then, when God begins to free things up, then you bring that first tenth to him first and put him, honor him.

Tithe is about honor.

Oh well, that's the law.

No, it's not the law, it's before the law, it's Adam.

That's where it came from.

It came from Adam.

So don't don't start arguing with me about it.

You, you, just you, just really.

Why don't you just admit you're chinchy, you're stingy, mingy.

That's what it really.

It's really that.

That's really what it is.

Pastor, that's mean.

Well, I'm just calling it like.

I mean, you know you're the one that said it.

You said you couldn't.

No, you wouldn't, because tithe is what First.

So everybody can tithe and should tithe, everybody should tithe.

Our grandkids tithe.

I see their names on the giving record.

They tithe, tied.

Pop will give them a hundred dollars and there's $10 in the offering and Graham gets in on it.

Most of the time she gives the money.

I don't even know about it.

We love to give our money away to our kids.

Resist depression.

Get up and encourage somebody.

Somebody else needs encouragement.

Quit dwelling on your problems.

Somebody's got bigger problems.

You know, when Gladys and I got back from Corpus Christi, we were there a year and a half.

We came back with zero, had to move in with my sister, had no house, couldn't?

I mean we put our stuff in storage?

I mean we, it was.

It was tough and I was fighting that pity party attitude.

I was fighting that.

I knew that was dead end and I wouldn't allow myself to do that.

But I mean, you know you're just at, at a tough, in a tough situation and every day, and every day is tough, every day is tough.

And then Brother Dearman, who was the head of missions at Lakewood Church.

He said, john, we're going to go to Mexico.

This is January.

I got back in town in January, last part, january 31st of that year, and so they're leaving for like in early March.

Late February he calls me.

We'd only been back a couple of weeks, I hadn't been able to get a job.

You know, I'm looking, I'm trying to find something.

I'm self-employed most of my career and they don't want to hire me.

I'm overqualified.

The ones that would even interview me, most of them, didn't want to interview me.

There weren't any jobs available.

But he called me.

He says I want you to go on that missions trip to Mexico.

We're leaving, We'll be there a week.

I said, oh, brother Dierman, I can't.

I got to find a job, I'm broke.

He said well, I'm just telling you what God wants to do.

You do whatever you want to do, god.

It's God for you to go, that's all Click.

Thank you very much, brother Tierman, for listening to my sob story.

And I thought, and I had a witness to go and I told Gladys, and Gladys did not want to hear it at all.

I said well, lord, I broke the subject Now if, if we're going to go, you're going to have to deal with her, because I don't blame her for not wanting to go.

I mean I, everywhere I've led her, has been a trail of woe and uh, I just I don't want to insist, I just don't want to do it.

I mean, if it's God you can convince her, she hears you.

And sure enough she did.

And we went and we got to minister to people that were a whole lot worse off than we were.

And the highlight of the trip, keep in mind where we were.

We were broke, living with my sister, and we didn't have any income.

I don't even know.

Brother Dierman said somebody paid your way, I think it was him.

It cost $300 to go each, so somebody gave $600 for us to go.

So that was miracle number one.

I think it was Brother Dierman, I can't prove it, he wouldn't admit to it and uh, but we went and one day we picked up a pastor and his wife in Saltillo and went up into the mountains and, uh, we were going to announce a meeting that night in the mountains and this pastor pastored the churches up in there and it's one of his churches which was a goat shearing barn.

That's what it was concrete floor, open air goats where they sheared goats.

That's his church and his way of announcing is driving down a dirt road and hollering.

The church is on tonight at seven.

He hollered it and it reverberated off the side of the mountain.

They had these deep mountains big old mountainous area and I mean when we came later that night there were 75 people there.

They heard the announcement.

It wasn't social media, it wasn't a telephone.

It was this guy and he was like the good, the bad and the ugly.

You ever watched that movie?

He was.

He was the bad, he was Eli Wallach.

He looked and the ugly.

You ever watch that movie.

He was the bad, he was Eli Wallach.

He looked exactly like Eli Wallach and he had this voice like this because that's how he announced his meetings was screaming and yelling.

His wife got in the van and she sat next to Gladys in the back of the van and she looked like she had lost her entire family by a murder or something.

She looked so sad, she had a frown and a look on her, she was so oppressed.

She was at the bottom of the ocean, how low she was.

And so Gladys got her in the back of the van and we're driving.

It takes 45 minutes an hour out of town to go up in these mountains and Gladys starts trying to talk to her.

Well, she doesn't talk English and Gladys doesn't talk Spanish, but Gladys started trying to talk to her in Spanish and before we got out there to the first meeting announcement, 45 minutes later, this woman is back there giggling and laughing.

She's totally free.

Gladys just kept on talking to her.

Gladys kept messing with her and patting on her and loving on her and talking.

You know silly little phrases of Spanish that didn't mean anything.

And taco enchilada, chalupa, you know.

And this lady it broke that off of her.

I'm telling you, when you're down, you just get out of that mess, get over and find somebody worse off than you are.

Let's adjust our receivers.

Come on, lift your hand and receive Glory to God, hallelujah.