Don't Limit God

Just wave those Bibles, say this together.

They say Heavenly Father, so glad to be here today.

Overwhelm us with your presence.

It's the Word and the Spirit working together in my life that gives me victory on every side, no matter how it looks.

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

We'll be receiving communion together in just a little while, but first let's look at Psalm 78.

And I'm gonna read to you a few verses here.

Psalm 78, and of course this is about the children of Israel, and it says here, in verse nine, the children of Ephraim.

You know, ephraim was a tribe, but Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph, and so they were considered, you know, even though they weren't direct, you know they were Joseph's sons, so they were just a generation behind all the other tribes, if you add up the time.

And so it's talking about these.

Think about what a mighty man of God Joseph was, and he had his sons, and they weren't so mighty.

Ephraim, it says, the children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his law or his word.

They forgot his works and his wonders that he had showed them.

Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers?

Marvelous things, the things God did in Egypt made you marvel.

I've been reading.

That's my normal reading, so I'm just going, I'm reading in book bags.

That's right now in my reading.

You know, we just did some marvelous things, man.

Make your head, scratch your head at what God did.

They forgot, ephraim forgot.

Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zohan, and then on verse 37, because their heart, for their heart was not right with him.

Their heart, their heart, was not right with them.

Neither were they steadfast in his covenant.

They weren't steadfast while they turned back.

That's why they forgot.

And but he, god, being full of compassion, being full of hesed Now think about that word that we taught a few months ago has said compassion, mercy.

That's really not what we think it is.

It's not poor baby, it's not patting your own head.

Compassion, it really means covenant, obligation.

God, because of him, because of his word, because of his covenant that he struck with Abraham, put up with them.

He puts up with a lot, but he doesn't ignore it.

See, we better not ignore it.

They ignored it, but he doesn't ignore things.

But because of his hesed, he forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not.

Yay, many a time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath.

And for he remembered that they were but flesh.

Now, when you see the word remember, we're gonna have the word remember in communion later.

He said do this in remembrance of me, remember, forget, remember, forget.

Remember is a covenant term.

It's covenant.

We have to be conscious of the one that we're in covenant with.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away and comes, not again.

How often did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert?

And yay, they turned back.

See that's what word.

Again, turned back.

Ephraim turned back in the day of battle, they were armed, they had armed, they were armed, they had the weapons, but they turned back.

And here it says it again Yay, they turned back and tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel.

And so today I wanted to just share an encouraging message don't limit God, don't limit God.

And so here we see Israel limiting God.

And the first Corinthians, 10, says that everything that's written in the old covenant, it's not meant to just cast shade on Israel and make us, you know, make fun of them or mock them.

They're just like we are in the flesh.

We're just like Israel when we're in our flesh.

But it was in their heart.

Their heart was not right with God.

Well, we've been born again.

We've got a better covenant than they do, and they may have had some excuses, but it wasn't good enough.

I mean, they still reap the curses when they could have had the blessings.

And notice, at the point of greatest opportunity is when this happened.

I'm talking about in the wilderness.

The wilderness was just the time between their deliverance from Egypt until they're going into their inheritance in the Promised Land.

It shouldn't have taken more than a few weeks to get across there, but it took them.

How long, 40 years.

And the original generation had to die off because of their words, because of their heart not being.

And I mean, you know?

God just said well, you know what.

You're not gonna go in, I'm gonna bring your children.

You're so afraid for your children's sake.

I'm gonna bring your children's in, I'm gonna bring them in.

And they did come in, didn't they?

And so they're about to enter the Promised Land, but they put limits on God.

They limited God.

A limit is a mark.

In other words, you're saying to God you can do this much and you can't do anything beyond it.

It's a barrier.

You mark a barrier to where you say.

You say, well, you know, I know God can do this, but he can't do that.

I know God can do this much.

He can do this much.

He can do a little bit.

You know God, I know he's gonna do a little bit.

No, he's not here to do a little bit for you, he's here to do a whole lot for you.

He's the God.

That's more than enough.

He's the El Shaddai, amen.

He's not here to just do a little bit.

He's not here just to take the pain out of your big toe.

Maybe he wants to heal your entire body.

Amen.

Don't limit God, don't mark Him short of what it is that you need.

That's what they did.

They placed limits on God and it gives you a couple of hints.

First of all, through ignorance, and ignorance includes forgetting.

And when I say forget, they didn't have amnesia.

They didn't have amnesia, okay, they didn't have a mental blackout.

That's what these criminals stand before the judge.

I had the gun in my hand and I just blacked out.

I know you didn't.

You shot the person, your dog.

You deserve worse, but we're gonna put you in prison for life because you killed another person.

But they commonly say they blacked out, they didn't black out.

They lie.

And so they didn't black out.

They didn't regard what God did on a daily basis.

They weren't persuaded of the marvelous things that he had shown them in Egypt.

Oh, by the mighty hand, in a stretched out arm, he delivered Israel out of Egypt, praise God.

And he's done the same for us.

He's delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

I think we can all testify about what God has done in our lives if we just think about it.

I mean, well, you know God hadn't done it.

Yes, he did.

If you're saved, he did the greatest miracle that's ever been that, when you got saved, that's the biggest miracle you'll ever see.

Yeah, but we don't think that way, do we?

A lot of times, we don't?

We just kinda we just why?

Because we're surrounded with the world.

That's why I keep preaching this, because, listen, we're going against the tide.

So through ignorance, and that includes in the amnesia, not learning from past mistakes.

You know.

They see, when I look at Israel and the wilderness, they just kept making the same mistake.

They kept griping and complaining.

Every time they ran a little short or something, they started blaming God and started murmuring against God.

And then, of course, the second one obvious is through unbelief.

Doubt and unbelief will keep you limiting God.

Let's stir ourselves up, let's read our Bibles, let's think about what God has done, and not only read your Bible, but bring it into your own life and start thinking a little bit about what he's done for you, or otherwise you're gonna be just like Egypt or Israel.

And these things were written for our admonition 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, our warning, our instruction.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

The Old Testament and all of Israel's sins and all Israel's shortcomings and the things that they suffered because of it, are written for the church to gain knowledge.

So we don't have to repeat the same mistakes.

Those mistakes we do repeat when we walk according to our flesh instead of according to our spirit and when we ignore this wonderful covenant that we have, which we're gonna have communion.

We're gonna celebrate that covenant this morning.

That's why we're told to do that on a regular basis.

We need to stir ourselves up to remember.

Hey, we're in covenant with Almighty God, we better not limit him.

And so I like what Jesus said in Luke 1.37.

He said you know, with God nothing shall be impossible.

Who did he say that to Mary?

Mary said how, how can this thing be?

You know, we're celebrating the Christmas season.

Mary conceived a child without having known a man, didn't have a husband and finally got married, but I mean after she was already with child, and it was kind of embarrassing to everybody.

And you know, thank God for her.

She didn't give up, she said but she just asked the angel, she wasn't in unbelief, she just didn't understand.

How can this thing be?

He said with God all things are possible.

Glory to God.

And then he said it again to a man who you know was going back and forth between doubt and faith, and he told him he said with man this is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible.

So get out of man's opinions and get out.

Quit listening to the naysayers and quit listening to the bad news all the time and let's get over into faith, because we're hooked up and we're in covenant with Almighty God, amen.

So you know, here in this life we have all kind of natural barriers, what our eyes see, and I like to use these as examples I think about.

I was watching something on TV not long ago about Mount Everest and you know you've got to kind of be a rich person to climb Mount Everest anymore, because you know you got to go over there, you know where it is and you've got to get climatized to the altitude and you got your lungs have to get used to it and then you've got to hire the Sherpas, you know, and you've got to have a bunch of equipment and you've got to have tents and you've got to have the best of oxygen You've got to.

You can't.

Even you've got to have oxygen, you can't breathe.

There's no oxygen at 29,000 feet.

And so you know those mountains in Tibet there's towering up there, huge, whenever it's a good enough day where you can see them.

Most of the time it's cloudy and mist, but every now and then, when it's clear, you can see that summit and it's just, it's drawn, it's beckoning men they want to climb it, they want it's a barrier.

Now a lot of people died.

Nobody climbed it until when 1953.

I mean hundreds, maybe thousands of years men trying to climb that mountain couldn't climb it.

But in 1953, sir Edmund Hillary got the credit for being the first one to reach the summit.

Now, he didn't do it by himself, he had a whole expedition and there was a whole team and they didn't and they attacked it as a team, but he was the one that actually got up on the summit first.

And once he did that, it just kind of opened the door and other people say, well, god, he did it, I can do it.

Think about flying.

I mean, people, men, have wanted to fly since the beginning, ever since they saw the bird.

They want to fly like a bird.

They can't.

You see these old films of these guys.

They have these inventions, you know, and they have these crazy looking contraptions, you know, and they're peddling off the cliff and it goes off into the ocean, you know, it just goes right straight down.

Nobody could fly until 1903.

And the Wright brothers you know how far they flew the first flight?

100 feet, you'd think, I don't know, but they counted it as flight.

I mean, they flew 100 feet and that's marked down.

And once they flew, look where we are now.

And what was it?

65 years later, we're on the moon.

We're on the moon.

Folks Think about how long people have been wanting to think well, how could I sure like to be up there, I'd like to go to the moon.

Well, you know, nobody did, until the Wright brothers flew 100 feet.

And then one thing after another after another.

You know, I grew up in that space age and I grew up with Mercury and I grew up with Apollo and all of those things going, you know, bigger and bigger, greater and greater, all the way through, one step after another, until we had guys walking on the moon.

We're talking about natural barriers that can be broken.

God has called us to break through the barriers that the devil has erected, hallelujah.

You know we have a divine right to see with God's eyes.

Isaiah 55, you know, my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways.

And then he tells you how to get his thoughts in ways.

What are they Right here in the Word?

And Ephesians 5, 1, he said be therefore imitators of God as dear children.

Followers means imitators, and the King James says followers, but that word follower means imitator.

Just, I remember you know growing, you know mowing my grass.

When Jay was just a little guy, his mother bought him a little plastic lawn mower and he'd get out there and follow me around the backyard.

Well, I only got the way the backyard.

The front yard was Gladysus, because that's the showcase.

I didn't do it good enough, I was relegated to the backyard, which was a whole lot bigger, and nobody saw it but us, and it didn't matter how neat it was.

I didn't take scissors and clip the individual blades.

You know Gladysus was, she was really strict about the front yard, but he would follow me around in my lawn mower with these little say he was imitating Dad.

He'd go out with me on the job.

We bought him a pair of rubber boots and he'd wade out there in the concrete when we were pouring concrete.

And so that's the way we are.

We're to imitate God.

We should be able to see the way God sees.

We should have his perspective, not the world's perspective, on these barriers.

Scientists decided they were gonna run this experiment and they had this huge, not aquarium but a tank 34 foot of water in it, and they put a plexiglass divider and divided the tank in two sections and on one side they put the Northern Pike fish, which is a fish.

Tom can tell you all about Northern Pike.

He's caught lots of them in Lake Michigan.

But they're a fighting fish and I mean they eat other fish.

That's what they do.

You know they don't eat seaweed well, there's no seaweed, but anyway they don't eat algae, they eat other fish.

And so they put them in there and then on the other side, on the other side of the plastic from them, they put their favorite food, they put the other fish that they normally eat and I mean they swam into that plastic and bam, bam, you could hear them.

It was just man.

They were trying to attack those fish.

They couldn't get to them and after a certain period of time I don't know how long they finally gave up.

I mean they got tired of having a sore nose.

The front of their face is full of teeth.

I mean, they're a vicious looking thing.

And they just finally figured out it's unattainable, we're gonna give up, we're gonna quit.

And then the scientists did something.

They just pulled the plastic out and now all the fish are swimming together and the Northern Pike doesn't try to eat the fish.

They've been conditioned to eat the fish food.

They were feeding fish food and they didn't go after their natural prey.

Why?

Because they didn't break the barrier down.

Same thing with a dog.

You've got a dog that's kind of likes to chase cars in the old days.

If you've got a dog that chases cars, you're timed to the tree.

You don't wanna lose your dog, you don't want, you know.

And then, of course, the neighborhood.

They don't like it, you know they get frustrated with a dog running loose and barking and they don't know if it's gonna, especially if you're riding a bike.

I used to ride a bike and they'd think there was one dog that was always chasing me and I was wondering if he's gonna jump up and bite my leg.

So what do you do?

Well, you tie a rope around his neck and tie him to the tree.

Now, the first few times he's gonna run at the end of that rope and that rope is gonna whang, you know, is gonna jerk him.

He's thinking, oh, there's a car, I'm gonna go get it.

Wham, you know.

After you do that a few dozen times, you learn that you can't chase the car.

It hurts.

You don't chase the car, dummy, so they don't.

Now you can untie them and they'll stay right in the yard because they're they've been.

Are y'all getting this?

Now, you know the devil can condition you to the limits that you have placed because of the flesh, because of your natural eyesight.

Come on, let's get our faith eyes moving today.

Let's stir ourselves up to see the way God sees.

Oh, come on, lift your hand right now.

Glory to God Now.

I've preached this before, but I preach it with more urgency now because we're living in the end days.

Jesus is coming soon.

I was also reading these verses in Matthew 24, luke 21, luke 17.

Jesus is coming soon, he said.

Jesus is the one that said.

He said it was in the days of Noah.

So shall it be also in the days of the coming of the Son of man.

For they were eating and drinking and married and giving in marriage, until the day the flood came and swept them all away.

I mean, it was life as normal, even though they had a witness.

They had Noah's Ark.

He's building that Ark.

God has built His glorious church.

The church is on the earth.

It is its own witness that Jesus is coming.

And what was happening in the days of Noah?

Well, the earth was filled with violence.

That word violence is the Hebrew word Hamas.

Has anybody ever heard of Hamas?

Well, now, that's Arabic, and so they didn't name themselves violence.

But I just think it's kind of a ha-ha moment because in Hebrew it means exactly what they are violence, murder.

That's the way you know.

That's reason God destroyed what was there, but he didn't do it overnight.

He took over 100 years to build the Ark.

He warned them and warned them, and they just kept on living life as if everything was gonna continue on forever.

Jesus said it was gonna be like that in the end days, and we're seeing it right now.

And another illustration in Luke 17,.

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

They bought, they sold, they built it, you know.

They planted, they did business, until the day fire and brimstone rained down from heaven, destroyed, saw them.

They didn't quit, they didn't stop.

They had a witness.

They had a witness and they ignored it.

See, you're not gonna get everybody in the world to change, but God is gonna get a harvest out of it.

Folks, we're not gonna change the society.

I don't care who's elected president.

Should we be involved in it?

Yes, we should, because we're standing up for righteousness, we're standing up for what's right, but we're not responsible for the results of what we're doing.

As long as we're doing what we're supposed to do and that's what shine our lights and be salt.

Light and salt, that's our job we don't go along with this world.

We don't go along with what they're doing the woke, all the woke, and all of the letters and all the pronouns and all of the craziness that's going on even in our government, even in our military, our judges, federal agencies dictating to its employees that they have to recognize pronouns.

Jesus said it was gonna be like that.

Do we have to like it?

No, do we be silent?

No, no, we stand up against it, which is gonna bring heat against us.

We're gonna stand up for what's right.

You know, oral Roberts had that visitation from Jesus all those years ago, 2000, summer of 2004.

I mean, it's gonna be 20 years here this next year, 20 years that God came to him and said the church isn't ready.

The church isn't ready.

But you know what I believe?

The church is more ready now than it was.

I see signs of awakening.

You know, when I go to Galveston, I stay on the water.

You know I like to watch.

I like to watch the Gulf and I usually get a hotel room with a balcony and I get up early.

I'll get up four day light a lot of times and I watch the sun come up.

And I watch the sun come up and kind of reminds me of back when I used to go deer hunting years ago, before I was saved.

I'd go deer hunting.

You get in the deer blind.

You gotta get in the deer blind real early way before daylight.

You wait till it's dawn and you waited too long.

You gotta get up there.

All the racket that you make, going up into the deer blind, getting settled, getting everything all lined up, you gotta give it time to settle down and you're completely quiet.

And I did that a few.

I hated blind hunting but I'd put up with it and I'd get in the blind, you know, and it's pitch black.

I mean there's no moon at this particular time, which is better for deer hunting because that means they can't feed all night.

They got it.

They can't really see that.

You know, they're nocturnal, but if they can't see they can't see it out in the country there's no light, so it's really pitch black.

I mean it's dark, you can't see anything, you can't see your hand in front of your face, and so you're sitting there, waiting, waiting, waiting, and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, it just gets a little bit lighter, just a little bit.

Well, does the sun come up?

No, the sun is way over the horizon, but just starting to color.

It's just starting to color the sky, just, and if there's any clouds, it's starting to tinge a little bit, just a tiny bit.

And then you start looking for the deer, you know, and everything looks like a deer, the bush looks like a deer, and your heart starts racing and you start getting, you know, nervous and you get your gun up and you get your sights on it.

You can't see anything, but it's not as dark as it was.

That's where we are.

It's not as dark as it was.

I'm telling you, the sun S-O-N.

Is coming alive in the church.

It's happening as we speak, and you wouldn't know it watching the news.

You're not.

You're gonna get bombarded with the negative.

You're gonna get bombarded with all the things that are wrong.

Well, yeah, they're wrong, but Jesus is coming.

Oh, come on, lift your hands like that.

Oh, my God, just as sure as the sun came up this morning.

Jesus is coming back.

But it's not just like bang, you know, the sun just takes its time.

I mean, it just takes its time.

And then you get all the colors, you know, and you get all the shades.

It's beautiful if there's more clouds in the sky and you know, in Galveston it's just beautiful because you've got the water too and it's reflecting and it's just.

It's a beautiful sight, that bore.

But once that orange thing comes up and starts to get over the horizon, now you can't look at it anymore.

It's just too bright, real quick, like that it is.

Before you know it the whole sun is up over the horizon and now you know you can't look at it.

It's just too bright.

The glory is coming into the church.

Yes, the church is waking up, amen.

I said the church is waking up, amen.

So let's not miss the day of our visitation.

Let's make sure we're ready.

You know, brother Roberts said the church isn't ready.

Well, let's make sure we're ready, amen.

And that means don't limit God, because God, god, man, it's impossible.

Not with God, god, but God, all things are possible.

And then Jesus said one other thing.

He said all things are possible to him that believe it.

All things are possible to him that believe it.

You mean believe pie in the sky.

No, believe the word, believe the word.

So three things here this morning don't limit God.

Number one don't limit God by your mind.

That is wrong thinking.

You know, when you get with man you're gonna have wrong thinking.

When you listen to man day and night, you're gonna have wrong thinking.

I mean, I just think about the news.

You just can't even get the news anymore.

It's almost all a lie, it's all misrepresented, it's all slanted.

Every bit of it it's slanted to a place where you can't really depend on it.

Even the weather you can't really depend on the weather man to give you the true weather forecast.

They hype everything.

Have you noticed?

They hype everything.

They send crews out when it's sprinkling.

They're on the freeway, the water is ponding.

Yes, the water pond.

You idiot.

So what I mean?

It's nuts.

Pastor said idiot.

Okay, I'm sorry, children, I forgot you were in here.

I'm gonna clean up my act here pretty quick.

Maybe you know with man it's wrong thinking.

With God it's right thinking.

Let's think like God, think his word.

I mean the doctor's report, the financial report, the news reports.

All of those things are subject to how you receive them.

Don't let them impose limits on what God is doing, because what God is unlimited, isn't he Attitude.

You know it has so much to do with your attitude.

You know, if you feed on the news, I don't believe in sticking your head in the sand and not knowing what's going on.

I wanna know what's going on.

So I have my sources and I consult them.

But rarely do I sit down and watch for even 10 minutes at a time, the news.

Why?

Because it doesn't do me any good.

I get mad.

I wanna throw something.

I talk back to the television trying to correct them.

No, there is no global warming.

That's a lie, dummy.

You had a brain, you could figure that out.

It's just, oh God, you ever notice that global warming is all about America and her trillions of dollars?

Nobody else cares, nobody.

They ring the alarm bell but they don't do one thing.

I've been to all these countries.

I mean they are dirty, they're polluted, they're a garbage dump and they still are.

They haven't done anything.

They still have these old smoking trucks and little bikes that smoke I'm smoking coming out.

We got rid of two stroke engines a long time, where they're not hardly any of those.

All the motorcycles are four cycle.

They don't smoke like the old two cycles, but they have two cycles all over Asia.

You can hardly move down the street in Manila without a wet rag over your face to filter out the pollution.

Same with New Delhi.

I mean, it's the same all over the world, except when they go to Davos and they meet together over.

They just got.

They started talking about the global warming here recently and the UN said we've got to have America step up and do more, be more of a.

Really we flush our toilets with clean water, water you can drink out of the tank of your toilet.

You can drink that water.

That's not true anywhere else.

You can't drink the water out of a tap, much less the toilet.

Are y'all with me now?

So you get mad at God, you blame God, you get God allowed out of your vocabulary.

Well, god allowed, no, god didn't allow anything.

You allow because we have authority.

Anything that happens on the earth is because we allowed it.

Let's just cut to the chase.

Quit talking about God allowing and allowing.

Now he and his words said certain things were gonna happen.

You're not gonna change those things.

The days of Lot, the days of Noah, not gonna change them.

They're happening and they're gonna culminate in final judgment.

But what I'm saying we're gonna get a harvest out of it.

I said we're gonna get a harvest out of it, so don't limit God by your mind or by your thinking.

Number two don't limit God by your ability or lack of it.

Don't limit God by your age.

Don't limit God by any factor of your own personal situation, because it's not you, it's God in you.

We all have the greater one living inside of us.

Tap into what is God's plan for my life?

You ask yourself that what's God's plan for my life?

When you're a young person, that's one of the great things you've gotta discover.

You need to discover what God's plan is for your life, and a lot of our children they're not really.

They're not raised in church.

They don't know what the word is.

We took the Bible out of the schools, we took prayer out of schools, and so we produce children that don't know anything about what they're really supposed to do, what they have an aptitude to do, and that's why we have total chaos.

You've got 30 year old guys still playing video games all day at their parents' in their parents' house.

They're 30 years old and they're not doing anything.

Why?

Because they haven't found themselves.

They don't know what their purpose.

Listen, find out God's purpose for your life and when you do, you will receive power, you will receive ability to fulfill.

That Doesn't matter now, dude.

I mean that you don't prepare yourself.

No, you probably didn't have to do your part.

Go to school, educate your mind.

You need to, you need to.

I'm not against education, I'm just saying it's not enough.

I said it's not enough.

So it's kind of silly then to limit God by your education or lack thereof.

Well, I quit school when I was in 12.

You know, some of them, greatest men of God, didn't go to school.

I'm not saying for you to quit school.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying quit, using it as a crutch.

I mean the Holy Ghost Trump's, the inside information Trump's, anything you can find on the earth Appropriate by faith, god's ability.

He gives grace according to his call.

You know I remember being in the Philippines 2007,.

We were in a little city.

A million people lived there.

1.3 million people live in Elo Elo city.

How many of you have ever heard of Elo Elo city?

One, two, three, four, five, six?

So nobody's heard of it.

It's got 1.3 million people living there and you know I'd talk in the morning to the pastors I think about 1500 pastors and leaders in the meeting in the morning and then that night.

We had three different neighborhoods we went to, had about 2500 people gathered in each one on each separate nights, in different parts of the city, had 40 churches cooperating with us and they would go ahead of us and they had volunteers that built me a little platform to preach from and they had the sound equipment and they had, you know, had the local churches did all that.

And so then, you know, we had a truckload of rice we gave away along with a ticket to come to the.

We gave away tickets to come to the meeting and then they could turn the ticket in for the rice at the end of the meeting.

So that was like a hook.

You know you want some rice.

Come to the meeting first.

Are y'all with me now?

And we were teaching our pastors and leaders from all over the Philippines how to reach their city with Jesus.

I mean, you know you can do the work of an evangelist as a pastor.

You don't have to wait for somebody from America to do it.

I said you don't have to wait for some famous person on television from America to come to your country and get the people saved.

You can get people saved.

Preach the word, and so we, you know, demonstrate.

So anyway, I'm on my way to the meeting.

We haven't driven over there.

It's dark and man, I'm nervous and I'm just, you know, I'm just feeling so insecure, I'm feeling overwhelmed.

I'm talking about feelings now.

I'm talking about feeling like I'm overmatched.

Over my head we pass a big group of picketers and their nuns picketing the meeting.

They're against me, they're against what I'm doing, and I couldn't help but laugh.

I said, boy, this is really.

I used to be the nun's favorite.

Now they're picketing.

But anyway, and you know what?

I just sat and stirred myself up and said but, thank God, I'm doing what I've been called to do.

I have a supernatural ministry, I'm anointed to do what I'm doing.

See, I just had to talk to myself, I had to encourage myself.

Listen, we can't limit God, don't limit God.

You get anything out of this.

I know, you know it, but we just want to encourage you.

Power of the Holy Ghost is available to every believer.

Every believer has a ministry.

Every believer has a call of God on their life to accomplish something, especially now, because God chose you to live now, at the end days, your life is absolutely critical, hallelujah.

So don't limit God.

Why your ability?

Don't limit God with your mind and your thinking and finally, don't limit God by your associations.

By your associations, I mean, you know.

I'm not saying you can't have friends in the world.

But what is a friend Really?

The technical version of a friend is a covenant partner.

Friend is not just buddy and pal.

Friend in the Bible is covenant.

So now, in 21st century, we've blurred the meaning of friend and have you noticed they're reinterpreting the English language.

For us now, everything means something different.

Now why?

Because they want to steal all of our rights and privileges.

They want to, they want to subservient to the state.

Are we going to stop it?

No, but we can stop it until we're gone.

That's the antichrist spirit.

But your association, friends, is a covenant term.

A friend would be someone out of this church that sits under the same ministry that you do, that hears the word of God like you do, someone that you can go to and confide in, and they can either encourage you or you can encourage them, or both happen at the same time.

But if you're going to hang with Sally May, that's smoking dope and she's a real nice girl when she's not under the influence and all of that kind of thing.

There's no hope You're just going to get.

They're going to rub off on you.

You're not going to rub off on them.

You would have already.

If you were rubbing off on them, they'd have already gotten saved by now.

It's been 10 years, how much, how long?

How long are you going to give it?

Now?

I'm not talking about being ugly to people.

I'm talking about prioritizing your relationships.

That's what I'm talking about and I'm talking to the young people in here.

I mean, you cannot hang with some people in your high school and your junior high school and your element.

There are some people that you absolutely cannot hang with.

You can be sweet, you can be nice to them, you can be whatever, but you do not go spend the night at their house.

You do not go and spend hours of your time messing with people like that who have no godly purpose in your life, and of course, that goes all the way to adults.

It does.

I mean it doesn't matter what age you are.

Your associations are very important.

I see, when I read my Bible, I see the associations are so critical.

I'll tell you, your friends are not your Facebook friends.

That's another blur.

They're on there, they might like something you post, they might be your friend, but you know that doesn't mean you have a relationship.

The wrong kind of friends can sink your ship.

They can cripple your walk with God.

Every believer needs a good pastor.

Every believer needs good Christian, true friends that you can be yourself with, that you can call on the phone when you need encouraging or you can hear from God about them and God can put them on your heart and you can pray for them and say you know what?

I got it this morning with you on my heart.

I just want to let you know and boom, you know.

I'll tell you what that's a blessing.

Let's look at Ephesians, chapter three.

I talked about the sun coming up, but I want to wrap this up by showing you Ephesians, chapter three, verse 19.

It's the ending of a prayer, a Holy Ghost prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians, verse 20, 320.

This is the end of this prayer.

Starts up here in verse 14.

I won't read the whole thing, just down here in verse 20.

Now, under him, who is able to do barely enough, exceeding abundantly?

Above all, we, one verse dare ask or think According to the power that worketh in.

You See, this is according to God's power, his revelation of His power, how God inside minded are you?

Have you put limits on God?

You know, when you put limits on God then he's not able.

He wants to, but he's not able to do exceeding abundantly.

Above all, you dare ask or think because you're not asking for much, you don't dare.

You've got little bitty God, great big devil syndrome.

If you're not careful, this is what you'll wind up with listening to this world.

You'll get little bitty God and great big devil syndrome Under him that is able to do exceeding abundantly.

Above all, you dare ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.

Under him, be glory where, in the church, throughout all ages by Christ Jesus, world without end, amen.

I believe the glory that's coming is going to start in the local church, not going to start in some football stadium.

It's not going to start in some concert hall somewhere.

It's going to start in the local church.

Where the anointing of God.

You know, recently, when we sponsored church services in the capital, texas state capital, they were an extension of the local church.

They were not some para church ministry, they were not some specialist ministry.

Nothing wrong with them, they all have their places.

But this that God orchestrated in Austin and the Texas state capital was an extension of the local church.

You had local pastors, you had local praise and worship teams.

They went and extended and the rod of authority, the anointing, the office of the pastor, and really you could say apostle, because it hadn't been done before.

It was groundbreaking, it was path finding.

Are y'all with me now?

It happened in the state capital and we got testimony after testimony.

One gentleman was in there and I think he was Baptist.

He had his eyes closed and he was listening to our pastor.

Our praise and worship team hadn't been our praise and worship team there doing the praise and worship and he opened his eyes and everybody in the room had their hands raised.

He said I had never seen that before.

I'd never seen people with their hands raised, their eyes closed, and they were obviously worshiping God.

He said I had goosebumps all over me.

Well, he's feeling the anointing.

He's feeling the power of God.

That's what it was.

What goosebumps, it's the power of God he's experiencing for the first time.

It really got him.

He was weeping and that atmosphere spread all over the capital.

It changed the atmosphere of that.

Now they did have their conflict, but the good, righteous lawmakers knew that there was a difference there.

Even if they hadn't come to the meeting they saw, they testified of the change in atmosphere.

Listen, it starts with a local church.

Jesus is coming soon.

He's expecting us not to place limits on him.

Let's take the limits off God and let's flow with the Holy Ghost and demonstrate to this lost and dying world that Jesus is alive and he's the same yesterday, today and forever.

Come on, lift your hands and receive Glory to God.

Everybody say I'm not limiting God, hallelujah.